After five years, 83 games and 44 tries, Reece Robinson will return to his home town of Sydney next year however he will leave behind a plethora of breathtaking memories that will be forever treasured by fans.
On his day, Robinson’s dazzling footwork, electric speed and instinctive game-awareness makes him one of the competition’s most dangerous attacking players.
Whilst we saw glimpses of his enviable natural ability throughout 2014, Robinson was unfortunately unable to consistently produce his best this season as he has done so majestically in previous years.
Robinson was among the leaders in aerobic and speed testing during the pre-season and was a solid performer during the side’s trials and at the Auckland Nines.
As you would expect given his prior performances for the Green Machine, Robinson was selected in Ricky Stuart’s starting line-up for Round 1 on the wing.
Despite the side’s indifferent form over the first half of the year, having only registered four wins from 11 games, Robinson was still able to showcase his tremendous try scoring ability. His nine tries from 11 appearances saw him placed towards the top of the NRL try scorers list at the time.
Alas, Robinson’s overall statistics such as touches and metres gained were down on what they were in previous years.
Robinson has previously portrayed his fantastic ability at fullback when the likes of Josh Dugan were injured however due to the emergence of Anthony Milford his opportunities in the number one jersey have been limited.
The Indigenous All Stars representative did have one opportunity at fullback this year in Round 15 against the Bulldogs with Milford named on the bench following the Under 20/s State of Origin fixture.
Unfortunately, Robinson had an indifferent night with luck seeming to not go his way. Stuart wasn’t thrilled with his performance and dropped Robinson the following week.
The Alexandria Rovers junior forced his way back into the side in Round 18 and kept his place for the next four games until it became apparent that Robinson wasn’t in Stuart’s plans for the future with the coach deciding to blood some younger outside backs such as Brenko Lee, Jeremy Hawkins and Jordan Rapana.
Robinson finished his time at the Raiders playing in the VB NSW Cup, leading Mounties into the semi-finals.
On behalf of the Raiders, we would like to sincerely wish Robinson all the very best in the future and thank him for the wonderful memories of attacking rugby league that he has bestowed upon us all in his time in the lime green jersey.
Games: 18
Average Minutes: 80
Tries: 10
Try Assists: 2
Try Saves: 1
Line Breaks: 10
Line Break Assists: 0
Tackle Breaks: 44
Average Metres: 99.6
Average Tackles: 3.2
Offloads: 10
Kick Metres: 5 kicks for 45 metres
