Rugby league icon Ronnie Palmer central figure in Wests Tigers‘ cultural rebuild

He’s too humble of a man to ever agree, but Ronnie Palmer is a rugby league icon.

For the past 40-odd years, he has had a front-row seat to the game’s biggest moments. As a strength and conditioner he had almost 25 years of State of Origin with NSW. And because of his proximity to the viral moments and nostalgic videos of the past, he’s the most recognisable trainer in the game.

His blonde hair and thick moustache are there in the background.

Sitting next to Blues coach Gus Gould after he stole Laurie Daley’s chair.

Listening to Nathan Brown reiterate “Walker’s on.”

In vintage footage, you can spot him almost anywhere in his orange shirt.

“I’m fortunate enough to have done maybe 70-odd games of Origin and I was so blessed to be able to do that. I’ve seen a whole lot, a lot of change,” he tells CODE Sports.

“So many funny things.”

The Wests Tigers’ “chief energy officer” will be 73 this year and, along with Tim Sheens and Wayne Bennett, has one of the longest continuous histories in the game. Just like the two coaches, he’s forgotten more about rugby league than most people will ever know.

He’s still uber fit too, making full use of the Tigers new training facility at Concord and showing up players who are less than half his age.

“He’ll come into the gym, he’ll just pick up the bar and deadlift 100 kilograms on it, do a set, do some chin ups, and you just think, ‘Where does he get this from?’” halfback Luke Brooks says.

“For his age, he’d be stronger than me.

“When he came here in the 2018 season, he took all of our conditioning and we used to joke that he had a stopwatch that didn’t work. He would just count in his head and make up. But we were really fit.”

Palmer has long been known for an energy that defies his age and, although he’s not as deeply involved with training the NRL playing group at the Tigers these days, his positive attitude remains infectious.

It’s exactly what the Tigers need right now.

Remember the magic dust he sprinkled on the Tigers before they went out to beat Manly at Brookvale in 2018? His little cardboard box of energy, a bit of confetti, a few words of encouragement and a lighthearted moment that took some pressure off before they took the field.

The Tigers beat Manly 38-12 that day.

No one is saying it was because of the magic dust.

But no one is saying it wasn’t, either.

He knows as well as anyone the value of laughter in this game.

“I’d never done that one before,” he says.

“You probably see in the clip, they’re all laughing. It just takes the lid off a little bit. They know what they have to do, they know they have to win, but it’s good to just lighten up a little bit and go and have fun.”

It’s easier to do that at the Tigers these days with a new training base and a fresh new coaching line up. Under Sheens, the mood has softened and the emphasis is on balancing fun with hard work.

There is good reason for optimism at the club. After claiming the wooden spoon last season, the Tigers have recruited aggressively and added the likes of Api Koroisau, David Klemmer, Isaiah Papali’i and John Bateman to their roster in 2023. The combination of a reconstructed pack, skilful halves and speedy outside backs have raised hopes the club could, at long last, could break its 11 season playoff drought this year.

“That’s what’s evident now,” Palmer says. “The approach that this group has had with Sheensy and Robbie (Farah) and Benji (Marshall), in my own observation, is that the mood is a lot lighter, the whole atmosphere is a lot more relaxed.

“When you’ve got happy players who are relaxed, and that’s no reflection on (Michael Maguire), who is quite intense, but this is quite the opposite.

“Everyone is full of hope.”

Palmer brings the same mindset he has always possessed to his role in overseeing the development programs of the Tigers’ pathway systems, where he works alongside Brett Kimmorley in preparing the next batch of NRL players for the club he loves.

His philosophy: put your head up, have confidence and look for the positive in everything.

“It gives me another perspective. It’s exciting to see some of these fellas coming through, and the ones I’m overseeing are the ones next in line for the NRL side,” he says.

“It happened at Penrith under Gus (Gould) and what they did there, bringing all these young players through the pathway – so they just keep coming. You’re not set for life, but you don’t have to keep bringing in external players if you get it right, so that’s what we’re working on with the Tigers.”

To date, that’s 52 years of service to rugby league for the “Balmain Charmer”.

Ahead of his time in terms of fitness, Palmer started out with Balmain in the early 1970s, where he played for five seasons. He then moved into PE teaching at Holy Cross College in Ryde before Arthur Beetson brought him to the Roosters as a trainer in 1987.

A man of loyalty, Palmer spent 24 years at the club before joining John Cartwright at the Titans, and then Penrith with Ivan Cleary and finally back to where it all started with the Tigers in 2018.

He figured it would be a nice way to round off his career, but even at 73, he has no thoughts of retirement. He’s interested only in raising spirits and physical excellence.

The brand new centre of excellence has all the bells and whistles as one of the best facilities in Australian sport at the moment. But all of it isn’t essential to winning.

The right attitude is.

“At the Roosters with Ricky Stuart (in 2002), we won a premiership training out of Wentworth Park dog track,” he says.

“It was amazing, we would be training out in the middle and the trainers would be bringing their dogs into the track. It just goes to show you that you don’t really need all that fancy stuff. We had a bit of a manufactured gym up in the main concourse where the punters place their bets and stuff.

“The calibre of the athlete now is superior, it’s hard to compare generations but that’s the reality. I suppose that’s just the evolution of rugby league.

“When you compare it to what we have now (at the Tigers), it’s another level. It’s really special, they’ve thought of everything.”

Aside from the world-class facilities, what the $80 million facility provides is the chance for the club to have a fresh start after a four-win season in 2022 and 11 years out of the finals picture. That’s important for a man who begins every day with positive mantras to make sure he’s bringing the best possible attitude to work.

As for whether retirement is on the horizon … not yet.

For what would the game be without its most famous trainer?

“No way,” he says.

“I still love the game, I love everything about it.”

Pamela Whaley is a Sydney-based sports journalist with more than a decade of experience in the industry. Starting out as a cadet at The Daily Advertiser in Wagga Wagga, Pamela moved to Sydney in 2014 and began writing features and news for the NRL's magazine, Big League. She has since worked at Fox Sports as a managing editor of digital NRL content and with Australian Associated Press as a sports journalist, covering A-League, cricket and NRL. She grew up playing soccer, touch football and netball but her true passion lies in storytelling, particularly involving rugby league.