1. Berto "Robert" DiPierdomenico was born on 5 May 1958 and is a retired Australian rules footballer who represented Hawthorn in the Australian Football League from the 1970s to the 1990s.
14 Facts About Robert DiPierdomenico
1. 2.
Robert DiPierdomenico was born in Hawthorn to parents Stefano and Antonietta, who had emigrated to Australia from Abbateggio, Italy.
3.
Robert DiPierdomenico's parents were married by proxy, meaning they were married over the phone.
4.
Robert DiPierdomenico began playing football in his early teens for local clubs East Hawthorn and North Kew before signing for VFL club Hawthorn as an eighteen-year-old.
5.
Robert DiPierdomenico kick-started his career in 1978, culminating in a best-on-ground performance in the 1978 VFL Grand Final.
6.
Robert DiPierdomenico was known for his toughness, and the moustachioed Dipper was one of the much-loved, and most media-covered characters in the VFL during the 1980s.
7.
Robert DiPierdomenico won the Brownlow Medal, in 1986 tying with Greg Williams, who was playing for Sydney at the time.
8.
Late in the first quarter of the 1989 VFL Grand Final, Robert DiPierdomenico was running backwards to take a mark when he was met solidly from behind by Geelong star Gary Ablett.
9.
Robert DiPierdomenico collapsed shortly after the game and was rushed to the casualty ward of St Vincent's Hospital, where doctors found out that DiPierdomenico had punctured a lung.
10.
Robert DiPierdomenico recounted the gravity of the situation years later:.
11.
Robert DiPierdomenico worked at Sky News Australia as their AFL expert in the mid 2000s.
12.
Robert DiPierdomenico made a cameo in the TV series Neighbours in 1999, and he appeared on the Channel 9 weight-loss show Excess Baggage in 2012.
13.
Robert DiPierdomenico is the first celebrity to bowl a strike in a sushi-eating challenge.
14.
Robert DiPierdomenico is an advocate for incontinence awareness, taking a brave step to publicly bring attention to the taboo subject.