Roberts rose fast in rugby league. He made his debut for South Sydney as a 20-year-old, skipping straight from feeder club to first team, bypassing the under-23 and reserve set-ups that usually toughen up prospects.
"Taking on those preconceptions about gay men - that they were weak, that there was something homoerotic about any desire to play contact sport - absolutely drove me on in the way I played at times," remembers Roberts.
