This week the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are mourning the loss of a club legend with the passing of Geoff Robinson. He was only 66 and died from a heart attack. He had also been battling cancer.
Robbo was a local Bulldogs junior who played with the Chester Hill Hornets. He made his first grade debut for the Bulldogs in 1977 as a 19-year-old. He was part of Canterbury’s premiership-winning teams in 1980 and 1984 and played a third Grand Final in 1986 in the Dogs’ loss to the Eels.
He also won a premiership in England with Halifax in 1985. He played 139 games for the Dogs, scoring six tries. Following his retirement, he went on to coach the Bulldogs under-23 side to a premiership in 1991.
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For me, his contribution will never be articulated on a stat sheet. As a six- or seven-year-old in the late 1970s, I started going to my first rugby league games. My dad, an Englishman who followed the Roosters because he landed in Bondi when he first came to Australia, would take me to games.
I’m not sure of the year or the venue but the Dogs were involved in one of the first games I saw. And Robbo – unsurprisingly – was one of the first players I noticed. With his wild jet black hair and beard, rolled-down socks and kamikaze charges into the defence, he was hard to miss.
I’m not going to say I started following the Bulldogs because of Robbo, but he was certainly the player who caught my attention and got me interested in them.
Probably the most famous footage of Robbo is him taking on the Parramatta wall. The Eels, under super coach Jack Gibson, had a penchant for fancy moves. One of them was the wall. Three Parra players would stand with their back to the defence.
Peter Stirling would tap the ball, throw it to the first man in the wall and loop around behind – the defence obviously couldn’t see who had the ball and Parra would put on a set play.
Geoff Robinson on the charge for Canterbury. (Photo: bulldogs.com.au)
They set up the play against the Dogs and Robinson took it on himself to fly out of the line and charge into wall. He wasn’t too fussed who had the ball. He took out the entire wall, plus Sterlo and forced an error. Type ‘Geoff Robinson Parramatta wall’ into YouTube and check it out.
I never even met Robbo, let alone had the pleasure of knowing him. If I’m honest I don’t even remember most of his career. I know the wall incident more from grainy video than memory. But hearing of his passing still had an impact.
He never knew it, but he had a big impact on a young rugby league fan looking for a team to follow and to find his first hero. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one. It’s a nice legacy.
Vale Robbo. My condolences to his family and loved ones.