Canterbury-Bankstown legend Geoff Robinson performed the sport selflessly, turning into one of the crucial beloved gamers to have ever worn the blue and white of the Bulldogs.
After a size battle with most cancers, he handed away on Wednesday on the age of 66 and could have Canterbury supporters above a sure age feeling a tinge of unhappiness, that one of many membership’s finest has left the earth after bringing a lot pleasure to it.
Blessed with far much less ability than Steve Mortimer and Terry Lamb, nowhere close to the category of Greg Brentnall and Garry Hughes and little greater than an absolute ardour for denting opposition defensive traces and creating the havoc that Bulldogs groups of the late Nineteen Seventies and early ’80s thrived on, Robinson stays one of many wildest and most audacious gamers the Australian recreation has ever seen.
Bulldogs legends Terry Lamb and Steve Mortimer. (Photograph by Mark Kolbe/Getty Photos)
To those that by no means had the privilege of watching the wild man in motion, Penrith battering ram of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s Martin Lang is maybe the closest I noticed a participant come to Robinson when it comes to operating the ball into the opposition with out concern or favour.
Overlook the momentary battles between Paul Harragon and Mark Carroll, Robinson produced the identical depth in collision every time he took to the sphere for the Canine, in 139 first-grade video games between 1977 and 1986.
Sitting as a younger boy at Belmore Sports activities Floor and watching the bearded and baggy lunatic roar as he charged in the direction of males with merely no different intent than hurting him and blunting his affect because of this, Robinson by no means took a backward step…..by no means.
It is perhaps onerous for some youthful and trendy followers to understand precisely the way in which Robinson performed the sport and in flip, imagine the load I’m including to his legacy, but just a few on-line searches and the recollections that might be shared over the subsequent few days would possibly go some technique to convincing them.
For all those that noticed his brutal artistry at work, Robinson was one of the crucial legally violent and aggressive gamers to have ever graced our home fields.
With socks round at all times his ankles and extra influential for the Bulldogs than simply his celebrated and good destruction of the Parramatta ‘wall’, one thing finally and appropriately outlawed as nothing greater than shepherding the ball or in modern-day parlance obstructing, Robinson performed the sport in warrior spirit.
Off the sphere, he was the antithesis of the character he performed on it. By no means a nicer man have I met in soccer.
After matches and with out showering, he would return to his native water gap to take a seat on the bar and chat with locals. Folklore says his gear was packed up unwashed and pulled out the next week to put on with the anticipated stench accompanying the clothes.
From all those that had the privilege of sitting at that bar, even when just for a second or two, a collective sentiment of ‘relaxation in peace mate’ will little question be despatched his means immediately, after the general public heard of his eventual succumbing to throat and mouth most cancers.
Robinson proved that he was way over only a brave runner of the ball by turning into a wonderful coach. In 1991, he lead Canterbury’s Below-21 President’s Cup staff to a premiership, from which various gamers went on to play vital roles within the 1995 first-grade staff’s success.
In retirement from the sport, the person affectionately often known as ‘Robbo’, by no means misplaced contact with the individuals he beloved and people who had at all times had his again. He additionally remained inextricably linked to the widespread man, one thing he was himself.
On Wednesday, Canterbury-Bankstown misplaced considered one of its biggest gamers and finest males to have ever worn the colors. It hit me fairly onerous, regardless of most in membership circles realizing that his time had gave the impression to be operating out at completely different moments throughout the previous couple of years.
Thanks for the recollections mate. The day you stepped up from the bench at Belmore Sports activities Floor and a fan close by shouted, “Let him out of his cage!”, is one thing mates and I recall every so often.
Right this moment it has particular significance.
