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Norm Robinson

Latchem in 1939
Personal information
Full name	Norman Charles Robinson
Born	(1900-10-17)17 October 1900 Balmain, Sydney, Australia
Died	18 March 1980(1980-03-18) (aged 79) Milton, Sydney, Australia
Playing information
Position	Halfback
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 1924–27 Balmain 37 11 7 0 47 1928 Cootamundra 1929–33 Balmain 34 8 14 0 52 1934–37 Yanco Total 71 19 21 0 99 Representative Years Team Pld T G FG P 1925–26 New South Wales 5 1 0 0 3 1928 Southern NSW
Coaching information
Club Years Team Gms W D L W% 1930 Balmain 14 5 2 7 36 1944–47 Balmain 72 48 5 19 67 1954–56 Balmain 57 31 2 24 54 Total 143 84 9 50 59 Representative Years Team Gms W D L W% 1948 New South Wales 4 3 0 1 75 1953 American All Stars 1 0 0 1 0 1958 Australia 3 1 0 2 33
Source: Rugby League ProjectAs of 2 June 2013

Norman "Latchem" Robinson (17 October 1900 – 18 March 1980) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer, coach, selector and club administrator for the Balmain Tigers club in Sydney and a City, State and National selector and manager. He also served as NSW and Australian coach in 1948 and 1958 respectively.

Playing career

Robinson was graded at Balmain in 1922 as a halfback. He was a member of the Balmain Tigers team that won the Premiership in the 1924 NSWRFL season. Robinson was selected in the New South Wales rugby league team between 1925 and 1926, playing a total of 5 games for the Blues. He played in the Maher Cup for Cootamundra in 1928, gaining representative selection for Southern Division in a match against Great Britain. Robinson then returned to Sydney and continued playing for Balmain. The final years of his career were spent playing for Yanco's club.

Coaching career

Robinson had three separate coaching spells with the Balmain club. He coached the Balmain Tigers in 1930, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1954, 1955 and 1956 before retiring. He was coach of New South Wales in 1948. Also, in 1953, he coached the American "All Stars" during their tour of Australia. He was manager of the Australian team in the 1957 Rugby League World Cup. He was appointed coach of the Australian team for the 1958 Ashes series against the touring Great Britain Lions. The British won the series 2–1 after winning Game 2 in Brisbane and Game 3 in Sydney.

Administrative career

Robinson was for many years after his playing retirement a Secretary-Manager of the Balmain Leagues Club. Together with the St George administrator Snowy Justice, Robinson's former representative playing peer, he was one of the seminal forces behind the establishment of the Club Managers' Association of Australia at its foundation in 1964. Robinson was awarded a Life Membership of that organisation for outstanding service to the club industry.

Accolades

The Wests Tigers Team of the Century was announced in 2004, encompassing the best players from both Balmain and Western Suburbs. Norm Robinson was voted the Coach of the Century.

The "Latchem" Robinson stand at Leichhardt Oval, Balmain's home ground, is named in his honour. Norm Robinson died 12 days before the opening of the stand by Neville Wran, premier of New South Wales and Tiger supporter, in 1980.

His largely attended funeral was held at St. Thomas's Church, Rozelle, New South Wales on 21 March 1980 and he was cremated at Northern Suburbs Crematorium.

References

Sources

• Malcolm Andrews (1992). ABC of Rugby League. Sydney: ABC Enterprises. pp. 490–491. ISBN 0-7333-0176-2.
• Alan Whiticker & Glen Hudson (2007). The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players. Wetherill Park, New South Wales: Gary Allen Pty Ltd. p. 468. ISBN 978-1-877082-93-1.

Footnotes

1. "Queensland's Four to aid All Stars" 17 July 1953 The Sydney Morning Herald
2. New South Wales Rugby Football League. (1920). "Managers Of To-Day'S Big Teams". The Rugby League News. 38 (13 (17 June 1957)). Sydney: N.S.W. Rugby Football League. nla.obj-761502053. Retrieved 21 January 2020 – via Trove.
3. http://www.cmaa.asn.au/default.aspx?id=11 Archived 26 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine CMAA Life Members
4. "Wests Tigers Team of the Century". Wests Magpies Archive. Archived from the original on 18 July 2008. Retrieved 18 January 2008.
5. "1980–1989". Tigers.org.au. Archived from the original on 22 July 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2008.
6. Sydney Morning Herald- Death & Funeral Notice: 20 March 1980

External links

• Norm Robinson at NRL Stats
• The History of the Balmain Tigers

Sporting positions
Preceded byArthur Patton 1952–1953	Coach Balmain 1954–1956	Succeeded bySid Ryan 1957
Preceded byBill Kelly 1938–1943	Coach Balmain 1944–1947	Succeeded byAthol Smith 1948–1950
Preceded byReg Latta 1929	Coach Balmain 1930	Succeeded byCec Fifield 1930

Coaching positions

v t e Australian national rugby league team coaches 1930 Arthur Hennessy 1946 Albert Johnston 1948–49 Col Maxwell 1949 Len Smith 1949 Keith Froome 1950–51 Vic Hey 1952–53 Clive Churchill 1954–55 Vic Hey 1956–57 Ken Kearney 1957 Herbert Poole 1958 Norm Robinson 1959–60 Clive Churchill 1960 Keith Barnes 1961 Brian Carlson 1962 Harry Bath 1963 Clive Churchill 1963–64 Arthur Summons 1964 Reg Gasnier 1965–66 Ian Walsh 1967–68 Reg Gasnier 1968–70 Harry Bath 1970 Arthur Summons 1971–72 Harry Bath 1973–75 Graeme Langlands 1975–77 Terry Fearnley 1978–82 Frank Stanton 1983 Arthur Beetson 1984 Frank Stanton 1985 Terry Fearnley 1986–88 Don Furner 1989–98 Bob Fulton 1997 John Lang (SL) 1998 Wayne Bennett 1999–03 Chris Anderson 2004–05 Wayne Bennett 2006–08 Ricky Stuart 2009–15 Tim Sheens 2016– Mal Meninga v t e Balmain Tigers head coaches 1908–13 Robert Graves 1914–15 Bill Kelly 1916–20 Arthur Halloway 1921–24 Charles Fraser 1925–29 Alf Fraser 1929 Reg Latta 1930 Norm Robinson 1930 Cec Fifield 1931 Reg Latta 1932 Charles Fraser 1933–34 George Robinson 1935–36 Joe Busch 1937 Harold Matthews 1938–43 Bill Kelly 1944–47 Norm Robinson 1948–50 Athol Smith 1951 Jim Duckworth 1952–53 Arthur Patton 1954–56 Norm Robinson 1957 Sid Ryan 1958–60 John O'Toole 1961–66 Harry Bath 1967–68 Keith Barnes 1969–73 Leo Nosworthy 1974 Alan Mason 1975–76 Paul Broughton 1977–79 Ron Willey 1980 Dennis Tutty 1981–86 Frank Stanton 1987 Bill Anderson 1988–90 Warren Ryan 1991–93 Alan Jones 1994–99 Wayne Pearce v t e United States national rugby league team coaches 1953 Norm Robinson 19?? Rob Balachandran 1993 Bob Brhel 1993 Mike Sutila 1994-95 Greg Gerard 1995 David Niu 1999 Shane Millard 2001 Matthew Elliott 2002 Bill Hanbury 2004 John Cartwright 2009 David Niu 2011 Matthew Elliott 2011 David Niu 2011 Matthew Elliott 2012-13 Ben Kelly 2013 Brian Smith 2013-14 Terry Matterson 2015 Peter Ilfield 2015 Brian McDermott 2016 Robin Peers & Dustin Cooper 2017 Sean Rutgerson 2017 Brian McDermott 2018 Sean Rutgerson 2018-19 Brent Richardson 2019-present Sean Rutgerson

• 1900 births
• 1980 deaths
• Australia national rugby league team coaches
• Australian rugby league administrators
• Australian rugby league coaches
• Australian rugby league players
• Balmain Tigers coaches
• Balmain Tigers players
• New South Wales rugby league team coaches
• New South Wales rugby league team players
• Rugby league halfbacks
• Rugby league players from Sydney
• United States national rugby league team coaches