Flower recalls in his autobiography "Robbie" that he started to run from the ground and paused to see the ball go through the goal and then went to the dressing rooms where he threw a can of drink against the wall in anger. Flower was injured in the game and his ability to play in the Grand Final, had Melbourne won, was not certain.  ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1973 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1974 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1975 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1976 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1977 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1978 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1979 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1980 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1981 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1982 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1983 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1984 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1985 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1986 ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1987 ! colspan=3| Career ! 272 ! 315 ! 256 ! 3359 ! 1735 ! 5094 ! 1321 ! 25 ! 1.2 ! 1.0 ! 12.4 ! 6.4 ! 18.8 ! 4.9 ! 1.3  After retiring as a player, Flower was inducted in the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996 and was named on the wing in Melbourne's Team of the Century. He later served on the Melbourne board until he resigned after being diagnosed with cardiomyopathy in 2004. He was also diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2001. His younger brother Tom Flower played 26 games for Melbourne over three seasons in the late 1970s. Robert's son, Brad, was considered a possible father–son selection in 2003 after playing for Sandringham Football Club, but was overlooked and was never recruited to an AFL team. Flower died on 2 October 2014, after a brief illness.