High tackle crackdown will reshape rugby league for whiz kids like Sam Walker and Reece Walsh
Kids in New Zealand will turn their backs on the All Blacks because of Warriors sensation Reece Walsh, a Kiwi superstar has predicted.
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Warriors teen sensation Reece Walsh can help turn kids in New Zealand away from the All Blacks and to rugby league, Kiwi international Shaun Johnson says.
Walsh, 18, burst onto the NRL scene in round seven with a mix of raw talent, instinct and flair, the kind of flair that can convince youngsters in New Zealand to choose the NRL over an All Blacks dream.
Johnson said Walsh‘s signature is a “massive” shot in the arm for rugby league’s push into New Zealand, where rugby union is unmatched as the country’s main sport.
“I just think about the New Zealand rugby league, that brand … kids that are on the fence thinking should I go to rugby league or union … then they see Walsh come out on the weekend and do what he is doing. I know which way I’d be going,” Johnson said.
“It’s exciting for the growth and the game back there. It’s a win for rugby league in New Zealand, that for sure.”
The Cronulla star, who has played 32 Tests and made his NRL debut for the Warriors in 2011, also believes Walsh will be an important antidote to the loss of superstar Roger Tuivasa-Sheck.
Tuivasa-Sheck is walking away from the NRL at the end of the season to pursue a career in 15-man game.
But the Warriors managed to pull off a major coup and lured fullback Walsh across the ditch from the Brisbane Broncos on a lucrative $1.2 million dollar three-year deal.
“I was gutted when Roger said he was leaving, because I know the hole that will leave for the growth of the game in NZ,” Johnson said.
“But when you bring someone in like Walsh, he’s going to appeal to the young kids over the with the way he plays the game. That’s exciting.”
Walsh’s eye catching start to his NRL career – which included three tries and seven try assists from only five games – has already seen former Queensland Maroons greats Wally Lewis and Billy Moore call for the teenager to be installed as Cameron Munster’s no. 6 replacement in this year’s series.
Walsh has Maori and Indigenous Australian heritage but the Queensland born teenager has pledged his allegiance to the Maroons and the Kangaroos.
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Recruitment guru Peter O’Sullivan says the emergence of Sam Walker and Reece Walsh combined with the NRL’s crackdown on high tackles will change the way he identifies talent.
This is from the bloke responsible for signing a stack of modern day superstars such as Billy Slater, Greg Inglis, Israel Folau and Latrell Mitchell among many, many more.
I rang O’Sullivan this week to get background on how Walsh came to be playing at the New Zealand Warriors after he started the season as a Brisbane development player, though not worthy of a top 30 contract.
It’s a sad predicament for the Broncos who previously dropped the ball on Sam Walker while losing David Fifita to Gold Coast and Xavier Coates to Melbourne next year.
But right now this teenage sensation from the Warriors is the young player everyone wants to talk about in the wake of his phenomenal arrival in the top grade.
In fact, the performance Walsh put on last Friday night against Wests Tigers that included a try and three try assists was one of the most stunning I can remember from a rookie fullback since a young bloke named Darren Lockyer burst onto the scene in the 1990s.
Which is why I called O’Sullivan, to find out just how he got under the Broncos’ guard to sign Walsh.
By the end of our conversation I was fascinated at O’Sullivan’s insights on how he thinks the emergence of these two young hotshots could impact the game’s future.
While the high tackle crackdown has divided everyone for now, O’Sullivan reckons it will present opportunities for young players who perhaps previously could have been belted out of the game.
O’Sullivan did not hesitate ranking his latest recruit right up with the very best he has ever signed.
“When we played the Roosters Mitch Aubusson and Luke Keary asked me the same question,” O’Sullivan recalled.
“And (Keary) said, ‘where does he rate?’
“I said, ‘he’s in the top bracket … the No 1, he is in that bracket’.
“And they said, ‘the best?’
“I said ‘no, (but) he is in that bracket’.
“And that was before he had even played a (top grade) game.
“But I am astounded by what he has done since.
“What him and Sam Walker have done this year in terms of their numbers on try assists, it is just unheard of. It is absolutely unheard of.
“And I am sure the new rules can take a bit of credit for that.”
Which is why O’Sullivan reckons it will change the way rugby league recruiters go about their business.
“Yeah, definitely,” he continued.
“You still have to be a footy player.
“But the big thing for me is, three or four years ago when Cooper Cronk and those blokes were going to the line, as soon as they passed the ball they were getting launched at.
“Hit in the back and all that sort of stuff … I mean, you can do that now (play with a licence to thrill) because you know someone is not going to belt you.
“Good players would still make it in any era.
“But I think you can put them into first grade earlier now because you know they are going to be a bit more protected by the rules of the game.”
DOING THE DEAL
You could go back to any year of the NRL era and struggle to find a better bunch of rookies to emerge in such a short space of time.
Perhaps 2003 when the likes of Slater, Benji Marshall, Brett and Glenn Stewart, Mick Ennis, Robbie Farah and Sam Thaiday all arrived.
Last year Josh Schuster jumped out of the ground at Manly with a debut against Wests Tigers that Benji rated the best he’d ever seen.
Then over the summer all the hype surrounded Joseph Suaalii, before the arrival of Walker just blew us all away.
But as good as they are all going now, Walsh just might have emerged the new favourite in the race for this year’s Dally M rookie of the year.
And O’Sullivan tells a great story about how he got the deal done.
He said he initially tried to sign Walker back in 2018 before he even knew Walsh existed.
“I flew over watched him play and after 10 minutes I rang (Walker’s agent) Clinton Schifcofske and offered him a three-year deal,” he recalled.
“They were interested at first but the Roosters were also interested.
“Then they rang the next week and said, ‘Look, we can’t see him moving over (to New Zealand) at 16, 17’, and that was the end of it basically.
“But I flew back the next week just to watch him play.
“I knew I couldn’t get him but I just wanted to watch him.
“I was captivated.”
But soon after O’Sullivan spotted another kid who played a lot like Walker but his preferred position was fullback.
Then when Roger Tuivasa-Sheck announced he would be heading to rugby union this year O’Sullivan hatched a plan.
At first he said he set his sights on trying to woo either Ryan Papenhuyzen or Joey Manu to the Warriors.
“But when we realised we couldn’t do that I didn’t want to replace Roger with an average fullback,” he said, “I would rather replace him with the best young fullback.”
So he invited Walsh down from Brisbane.
And O’Sullivan didn’t beat around the bush, he went in big.
“We made him an offer he couldn’t refuse,” he conceded, about the reported $1.2m three-year deal.
“I picked him up in Sydney and we went to dinner with Gus (Phil Gould).”
The following morning they sat down in Nathan Brown’s room at the Warriors’ base at Terrigal and went through video.
Then it was off to breakfast with Tuivasa-Sheck and Tohu Harris along with O’Sullivan, Brown and chief executive Cameron George, before lunch with Kodi Nikorima and Sean O’Sullivan, who Walsh now rooms with.
By the time they dropped him at Newcastle airport that night the poor old Broncos had well and truly had their pants pulled down.
While it was the biggest offer ever made to a rookie, it might end up one of the great bargain buys in the game’s history if Walsh’s career continues on the same trajectory.
“It is the way it goes,” O’Sullivan added, when asked if he had any sympathy for the Broncos.
“They come over to New Zealand and pinch kids left right and centre.
“They don’t apologise when they do that.
“I won’t be apologising for this.”
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