The former Manly, Cronulla, Parramatta and Warriors half will fill the void left by Beau Henry who has linked with Eels feeder club Wenworthville after two standout years in the Illawarra league.

Robson adds to already healthy ex-NRL stocks in the Illawarra league this season, with two-time premiership winner Glenn Stewart returning to junior club Wests alongside former Test centre Willie Tonga.

Captain-coach Michael Henderson said Robson will bring a welcome steady head to a club that’s gone 1-1 in the past two deciders.

“We were pretty lucky to sign Robbo. He finished up in the NRL and he was keen to play on so it was a good fit for us and hopefully a good fit for him as well,” Henderson said.

“He’s one of those guys with a real steady head and a real positive influence on everyone. He’ll be a real asset for us just through his experience and his ability to sustain pressure. 

“He’s got a great kicking game, in particular his short kicking game, he’s very experienced and he’s played plenty of top level footy.

“He’s a great fella as well so he’ll fit in really well with the group and it’s exciting for us this year.”

With Henderson also returning alongside Joel Reddy and Keith Lulia, the Canaries will boast just shy of 500 games of NRL experience.

They’ve also added Dylan McGregor, who scored 13 tries for Shellharbour in Group Seven last season, with Henderson confident the club’s young talent can also make the step up.

“We haven’t had a massive turnover,” Henderson said.

“We’ve kept a lot of the older boys around and we’ve added Dylan McGregor and three or four other guys.

“We’ve got a few blokes we’re expecting to come up from reserve grade last year so it should put us in good stead.

“That’s added to our depth which is good because that cost us a little bit last year. We had a good squad but our depth got a bit tested at the back end of the year.”

Henderson will need to fill a huge void left by custodian Jason Raper who’s hung up the boots but will stay on as a member of the coaching staff.

“Rapes is a big loss, you can’t really replace him but we’ll have some young guys who can step up and do a job for us,” Henderson said.

“The beauty is we’ll have Rapes on the coaching staff this year and he’ll be a real role model for those blokes.

“He’ll coach our reserve grade and work with our outside backs and he’s going to look after our conditioning.

“He’s great bloke to have around the group and he’ll continue to be a real asset for us.”

The Canaries are yet to fully return for preseason with Henderson looking to freshen up a squad that’s ridden a tough road to the past two grand finals.

“We’ve had a bit of an extended off-season this year because we’ve had a couple of big years and we were pretty weathered by the back end of last year,” Henderson said.

“I wanted to mentally freshen the boys up as much as I could, particularly a few of the older guys.

“We’re coming back soon, we’re looking forward to a real intense five or six weeks and all the boys are really excited for a big year.”