Robert DiPierdomenico
Australian rules footballer
Berto "Robert" DiPierdomenico (born 5 May 1958) is a retired Australian rules footballer who represented Hawthorn in the Australian Football League (AFL) from the 1970s to the 1990s. Popularly known by his nickname "Dipper", DiPierdomenico is one of the most successful Italian Australians to play Australian football, and his contribution to the game was recognised by selection in the VFL/AFL Italian Team of the Century.
Early life
DiPierdomenico was born in Hawthorn to parents Stefano and Antonietta, who had emigrated to Australia from Abbateggio, Italy. DiPierdomenico's parents were married by proxy, meaning they were married over the phone.
A hyperactive child who had a stutter, Dipper attended numerous schools in Hawthorn and neighbouring areas, including Kew High School, where he met his future wife Cheryl Bayley, Swinburne Tech, where his headmaster was his future Hawthorn coach, John Kennedy Senior, and Hawthorn West Primary School.
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. As a youngster, DiPierdomenico played cricket and would bowl left arm over the wrist.
AFL/VFL career
Beginning his career with the Hawthorn Football Club in 1975, DiPierdomenico started slowly, playing 99 reserve-grade games as he flitted between first team and reserve-grade football. He kick-started his career in 1978, culminating in a best-on-ground performance in the 1978 VFL Grand Final.
DiPierdomenico was initially assigned guernsey number #53, but subsequently wore number #9.
“Robert DiPierdomenico” enters the record as australian rules footballer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Robert, DiPierdomenico and Australian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7343522. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1958, 1975 and 1978.
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This entry incorporates text from “Robert DiPierdomenico” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.