Norman "Latchem" Robinson (born 1900 died 1980) was an Australian rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

 player, coach, selector and administrator for the Balmain

Balmain Tigers

The Balmain Tigers are a rugby league football club based in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain. They were a founding member of the New South Wales Rugby League and one of the most successful in the history of the premiership, with eleven titles...

 club and a City

City vs Country Origin

City vs Country is an annual Australian rugby league football match that takes place in New South Wales between City and Country representative sides. The City side represents the Sydney metropolitan area...

, State and National selector and manager.

Playing career

Robinson was graded to Balmain as a halfback in 1922. Promoted to first-grade in 1924, he was selected to tour Queensland with New South Wales after playing only one first-grade match.

Coaching career

Norm Robinson had three separate coaching spells with the Balmain club. He was coch of New South Wales in 1948. Also, in 1953, he coached the American "All Stars" during their tour of Australia.

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

Leichhardt Oval

Leichhardt Oval is a football stadium in Leichhardt, New South Wales, Australia. It is a home ground for the Wests Tigers rugby league team. The stadium has a nominal capacity of 20,000, with recorded highest crowd figures of 23,000 in the 1981 KB Tooth final South Sydney Rabbitohs versus...

, Balmain's home ground, is named in his honour. Norm Robinson died 12 days before the opening of the stand by Neville Wran

Neville Wran

Neville Kenneth Wran, AC, CNZM, QC was the Premier of New South Wales from 1976 until 1986. He was National President of the Australian Labor Party from 1980 to 1986 and Chairman of both the Lionel Murphy Foundation and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation from 1986...

, premier of New South Wales and Tiger supporter, in 1980.

External links

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