As the most famous trainer in rugby league, Ron Palmer has been the middle man between the coaches box and players for more than 40 years, delivering some of the most important messages in the game’s history.

But none quite as urgent as this.

“I will say it in the nicest possible way,” Palmer said.

While working for the Roosters in the early 1990s, Palmer was communicating with the legendary Jack Gibson, who sat high in the grandstand in his role as football manager.

“I went out onto the field and one of the players said he was busting to go to the toilet. He said he couldn’t hold it,” Palmer said.

“I radioed Jack Gibson and told him the player needed to go to the toilet. In his laid-back way, Jack just said: ‘Tell him to shit himself’.”

Until this season, Palmer had enjoyed VIP access to rugby league’s greatest moments.

The strength and conditioning coach has been involved in grand finals and State of Origins, seen Test matches and tantrums, met a host of celebrities and, because of his celebrated moustache, has even been mistaken for Chuck Norris.

MISTAKEN IDENTITY

Palmer has only ever shaved off the famous facial hair once since high school, after a bet with star back-rower Bryan Fletcher — and some added motivation — for the Roosters to win the 2002 premiership.

After their grand final glory, Palmer and some players headed to Bali to celebrate.

“We were all hanging around the pool when suddenly all these Japanese female tourists were pointing at me,” Palmer said.

“Luke Ricketson asked them why they were pointing and they asked whether I was actor Chuck Norris, who was famous for his moustache.

“Ricko said I was Chuck and asked whether they wanted to meet me. I was sunbaking and the next minute I was surrounded by all these female Japanese tourists taking photos of me. I was set up.”

His moustache drew comparisons with Solo Man, the actor who appeared in 1980s television soft drink commercials, as well as the bloke who promoted Cougar Bourbon in ads that aired around 2001.

“Luskin Star was another because they thought I strutted around like a horse,” Palmer said, a reference to his prancing running style.

‘I MISS THE GAME’

But Palmer has been missing from NRL sidelines this year after his contract with the Wests Tigers wasn’t renewed.

Now 74, Palmer was involved in rugby league as a player or trainer from 1971.

“I miss the game. I had a purpose for 53 years,” Palmer said, still quietly holding out hope for a comeback, having recently travelled to Papua New Guinea with Brad Fittler and the Prime Minister’s XIII.

“I’m doing my best, mate, that’s all you can do.

“I have been doing bits and pieces of PT plus doing a couple of mornings a week at Trinity Grammar. I’m keeping off the streets and keeping the wolves away from the front door.

“When you walk into a place, you’ve got to have your head up. There’s nothing to be found down there if you’re looking down. Make eye contact with people, shake their hand and pull them over. I miss that sort of contact with people.”

It’s a sobering sentiment from a rugby league jester who often used humour as a way to break the tension and put players at ease.

BOX OFFICE GOULD

A man who was on the field so much one day as trainer that then Roosters coach Phil ‘Gus’ Gould marked him down for three missed tackles.

“(Referee) Bill Harrigan once pulled up at a game and called me over to say: ‘stay off the field, you are ruining my game’,” Palmer said.

Palmer and Gould had a remarkable relationship.

“There was the day down at Brookvale in 1995 when Manly had won 15 games in a row,” Palmer said.

“Gus being Gus said: ‘We’ll fix that up’. We stayed at the Manly Pacific overnight to prepare. We hit the ground running but for whatever reason, the penalties were going left, right and centre against us.

“Gus was with James Packer in the grandstand and chucked a mental. He radioed to me: ‘Ronnie, get those players off the field, right now.’ He wanted a player walk-off. Then I heard ‘crash’ because he had thrown the walkie-talkie onto the ground.

“So I ran out during a break in play and spoke to Roosters captain, Sean Garlick. ‘Sean’, I said it loud enough for the referee (David Jay) to hear me, ‘you have to get the team off. Gus wants everyone to walk off. We’re not getting a fair go.’ The ref heard every word.

“Of course, we stayed on and, over the next 40 minutes, we won the penalty count and the game.”

It wasn’t just Gould’s sideline antics that had box-office appeal.

“The best thing about Gus is the drama at his halftime speeches,” Palmer said.

“Blokes used to book a seat to come and watch. He would quote figures and stats that he didn’t even have in front of him.

“He was the best.”

THE BALMAIN CHARMER

Nicknamed the Balmain Charmer by legendary Tigers fan Laurie Nichols, Palmer has worked with most of the greats of the game. Gibson, Gould, Arthur Beetson, Ivan Cleary, Ricky Stuart, Laurie Daley, Graham Murray, Michael Maguire, John Cartwright, Wayne Pearce, Tommy Raudonikis and Brad Arthur.

He spent 24 years at the Roosters, before stints with Gold Coast, Penrith, Parramatta and the Wests Tigers.

Palmer was involved in five grand finals, 24 Origin games for NSW. He helped Queensland in 1993 and ’94, enjoyed two stints with Australia under Bob Fulton and Ricky Stuart and was with the Tongan team for 13 years.

A strength and conditioning coach of remarkable longevity; a man millions of rugby league fans would have seen scarper onto the field to help crook players, rehydrate the thirsty or communicate coaching instructions.

Along the way, he met media mogul Kerry Packer, Hollywood actors Linda Evans and Christopher Reeve, and legendary Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

He’s seen it all.

“There was this day a player – who is a current NRL coach – went down with a dislocated hip,” Palmer said.

“You could clearly see he had injured his hip but the doctor came out and asked how many fingers he was holding up!?

“And the time a bloke at Henson Park badly broke his ankle, which was facing the wrong way. It was ugly and scary.

“The doctor came out and I warned him how bad the injury was. The doctor saw it and yelled: ‘Aww, shit’.”

GREAT CHAIR HEIST

Palmer has had a front-row seat to some of league’s most iconic moments — including when Blues coach Gould stole assistant Laurie Daley’s chair on the sideline of Origin II, 2003.

The Blues’ bench rose as one in response to the on-field action and, when the moment had passed, Palmer took his seat as Gould stole Daley’s, leaving the latter awkwardly wedged, half squatting, between the pair.

“I laugh at that every time I see it,” Palmer said. “I really can’t give you a reason why I stole his seat. I didn’t know. ‘Lorenzo’ (Daley) was too nice to tell me I had pinched his seat.”

Daley recalled: “Ronnie sat down and Gus stole my seat. I was looking to sit down and had to crouch down, waiting for one of them to move but it didn’t turn out like that. It was a very funny moment.

“Ronnie is passionate, positive, caring and always has the best interests of the player at heart, it’s not about him. A wonderful human being, a champion fella.”

THE PIONEER

Palmer has either worked or trained 40 top-line coaches, including current clipboard holders Cameron Ciraldo, Andrew Webster and Craig Fitzgibbon.

“Don’t let the good fella and larrikin overshadow Ronny’s ability, in not just high performance, but as a guy who managed big personalities and the attitudes of many in the game,” Stuart said. “For me, he was a man I trusted and leant on heavily.

“He could read the room and his ability to change things immediately to adapt was a skill not many own.

“In the early 2000s, Ron was ahead of the game as a high-performance manager with concepts that created success and had many people chasing his ideas.”

For all his gags and laughter, Palmer fears humour – along with the rascals and villains – are disappearing from rugby league.

“I don’t think we celebrate enough these days because the game is so intense,” he said.

“You barely win one week and you’re getting ready for the following match. You need a bit of down time. The humour in the game may have gone but the camaraderie is still there.”

“I understand there are big contracts and sponsorships and that all goes out the window if they do the wrong thing.

“But there’s no reason why people can’t enjoy themselves and have fun. Don’t be so scared to have fun – get on with it. When Freddy (Fittler) was coaching, he would say: ‘Bring your character with you’.

“In State of Origin, we used to tell the players to check-in their guns – their mobile phones – at the door and head into the saloon.”

Fitness freak Palmer was once dubbed 40-20, because he had the head of a 40-year-old but body of a 20-year-old. Now that ratio has shifted to 60-40.

It’s a long time from the 25 first-grade games he played for Balmain between 1971 and 1975, his stint as a PE teacher and league coach at Ryde’s Holy Cross College, and the moment Beetson gave him his first training gig with Easts in 1987.

“Arthur was larger-than-life. Starting out was probably the best and memorable part of my career. I was with all the greats,” Palmer said.

“I would dearly love to be involved and still think I could do it. But as we get older, they put the horses in the long yard.”