Reece Walsh and Jarome Luai to lock horns in fiery Origin showdown

Reece Walsh and Jarome Luai have been exposed as “professional irritants” and have been warned about their infamous incident.

Walsh vs Luai set for Origin showdown

COMMENT

You’d go a long way to find a pair of pot-stirrers more prolific than Jarome Luai and Reece Walsh.

We’re talking about a guy who insulted a teenager at a fan day about his mum, and another who sledged Brian To’o at his own wedding.

Add them to an emotionally-spiked arena like State of Origin, and it’s like parachuting Reed Mahoney and Peter V’landys in to a pack of props and Victorians.

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And with both agitators returning to the cauldron in 2024 for one of the most knife-edge series in recent memory — and with plenty to prove — their overstimulated baloney could hit all-time levels of tedium.

Yep, time to tie back your manes and chap-stick your sledging lips because Origin is about to degenerate in to Grub-Con 2024.

Take nothing away from their abilities as footballers, but lippy whippets like Luai and Walsh are always as much chance to light-up Origin with their hot heads as their feet.

However, they are also products of the NRL’s sterile era, a time when the fighting is performative and the hands are Reiki.

Players nowadays need to strike a nerve without any striking whatsoever, meaning the fisticuffs of yore have been replaced with professional irritants circling each other with wide eyes and empty insults.

Reece is ready to go. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)

Luai has the taste of blood. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

And to be fair, we haven’t seen an outraged soccer mum or a court case in many years.

However, the flip side is mouths like Luai’s and Walsh’s can thrive unregulated, purely because you can’t punch people anymore.

When the two last locked eyes in the arena, both were sent-off for headbutting each other in such an effete manner they almost started making-out.

This followed their game one fracas where Walsh pulled Luai’s hair before scampering to safety, a move the Panther carped with the accusation Walsh had “ran away”.

Sadly Luai was dropped for game three and Walsh suspended, leaving us all hanging on the next instalment of handbag whipping.

But now the rematch can resume in the hottest of colosseums and both will be champing at the bit like unfed cougars.

It is ON. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Remember too, both are returning to the big stage for the first time since emerging from last year’s Grand Final with mixed reviews and varying legacy memes.

Luai was victorious but only after the Panthers points burst came when he left the field, while Walsh missed the tackle on Nathan Cleary for the winning try but was a beacon in attack all night.

Both have a point to prove, and it means one thing for Origin.

Once a referendum on physicality, the pinch points of the game will not be determined with the idealistic nostalgia of an earth-shaking bell-ringer or an impulsive Cattledog.

It will again be dominated by macho peacocks ruffling each other’s plumage, and admittedly, maybe a bit of footy too.

- Dane Eldridge is a warped cynic yearning for the glory days of rugby league, a time when the sponges were magic and the Mondays were mad. He’s never strapped on a boot in his life, and as such, should be taken with a grain of salt.

Originally published as Reece Walsh and Jarome Luai to lock horns in fiery Origin showdown