Robbie became the 14th person voted off Australian Survivor overnight, after he failed to form a strong enough alliance in the new tribe of Koro Savu after the merge.
Robbie and Benji were the only two left out of the decision to vote for Winter Olympian Lydia Lassila in the previous episode. As such, the boys were left in a vulnerable position heading back in to camp.
Despite trying to forge a new alliance, and later giving a passionate speech at tribal council, Robbie was unable to convince the tribe to turn on its ringleader Mat Rogers. He was almost unanimously sent home, with Sharn casting a single safety vote for Benji.
We caught up with Robbie to find out about his ‘unfortunate’ departure, his best mate Benji and his excitement over being in the Jury Villa.
TV WEEK: Yourself and Benji were the only ones left out of the vote to eliminate Lydia, were you freaking out a little bit when you got back to camp?
Robbie: I knew I had a huge target on my head and unless I did something really cunning or whatever then it would be the end of my time. I still tried persuading people but unfortunately he [Mat] got the better of me.
Robbie tried to overthrow ‘the Godfather’ Mat Rogers.
You were trying to convince everyone at tribal council to flip on the alliance and vote for Mat, do you think they made a mistake in voting you out over him?
The whole point of the vote last night was to eliminate a ‘threat.’ They saw me as a threat, because of my physical strength. But in my eyes, if they wanted to eliminate those types of people Mat is obviously way more in charge, he’s got more Champions to his name, he’s way more dominant in challenges so I would have thought that if you’re eliminating a threat you should put Mat’s name down, not mine.
When they submitted their votes, both Mat and Steve referred to you as being a threat. Even though it sucks to go home, was it kind of cool to know they thought of you like that?
Yeah, when I came in to Survivor I said the only way I wanted to be voted out was if I was a threat, so to hear those words from them it was pretty humbling and it was a good sense of respect I got from them.
Do you hold any grudges for the tribe for voting you out?
I feel like with Survivor you can’t hold grudges, you know, everyone is here to be the sole survivor and so if you’re going to go in there and hold grudges then you’re pretty naive on the game. Everyone did their own thing to become the sole survivor, and I would have done the exact same thing. No grudges, still friends with everyone and I still talk to most people. Good vibes at the moment!
When you walked out of your final tribal council, who were you hoping would win?
My boy Benji! We did so much fun stuff together, he’s a friend for life, and we made every decision together, so really I wanted him to win.
Were you scared to leave Benji alone in the tribe?
Absolutely! He was my boy, we were together from day one, I sort of felt almost like a parent leaving their child.
Obviously it’s a shame for you not to be in the game anymore, but were you excited about getting in to the jury?
In Survivor the one thing you want [if you don’t win] is to get to the jury, because at least you’re still in the game in its final stages. And you get to live it up! You get all the food, you get to relax, stress free, while the others are all still starving and dirty on the island.
Robbie knew his time was up on Australian Survivor.
Do you have any regrets over the moves you made or alliances your forged, now that you’re watching it back?
I never regret anything. Every time I did a move, or acted in a certain way, it was obviously the best option then and there. Hindsight is a beautiful thing but I wouldn’t change my game play, you gotta play to your strengths and my strength was having that physical ability but also being that nice bubbly guy, and wanting to provide for my tribe. But I have learnt that I was pretty naive! Believing a couple of things that the Champions said along the way, so I would change my social side a little bit more.
Have you seen anything in the episodes that’s really shocked you, like in the interviews to camera? Or the conversations between other contestants?
I didn’t realise Benji was such a slob. Ugh when he ate all those Nachos and I went after him. I don’t wanna eat any Nachos for the rest of my life. But no, no real shocks. It’s just good to see how they’re portraying everyone.
Australian Survivor airs Monday and Tuesday, 7:30pm, on Network Ten.
