NRL 2021: The DNA behind Sam Walker’s incredible rise
To the untrained eye Sam Walker is a bolt from the blue. But the rising Queenslander is the product of 80 years of football pedigree, writes Peter Badel.
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It is the 80-year footballing obsession that has made the Walker surname synonymous with Queensland rugby league.
Sam Walker may be the latest whizkid to hit the NRL like a tsunami, but when the Roosters young gun runs out to face the Broncos on Saturday night at the SCG, he will have almost a century of rugby league DNA pumping through his veins.
NRL fans have been blown away by the 18-year-old’s wizardry since his NRL debut eight weeks ago, but to understand the teen’s natural instincts, you have to examine the Walker family tree with roots deeply embedded in rugby league.
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Sam Walker is not just a natural born athlete. He is a product of four generations of rugby league intelligence spawned in the salt-of-the-earth simplicity of Toowoomba.
It is a connection that traces back to the 1930s, before World War II, when Sam Walker’s great grandfather Ray took up rugby league in the Queensland country town of Dalby.
The baton of knowledge was passed to grandfather Garry, who was coached by Wayne Bennett at Brisbane Brothers in 1981 and produced four sons, three of whom - Ben, Shane and Chris - would go on to play a collective 436 first-grade games, including 222 under Bennett at the Broncos.
The magic you see from Sam is not mere happenstance. His instincts, his touches, his confidence, his legerdemain, his composure are a throwback to the countless memories compiled by his dad, uncles and grandparents on a two-acre property in Toowoomba.
“Rugby league just seemed like the natural path for us,” says Shane Walker, 43, a clever utility who played 150 first-grade games for the Broncos and Souths from 1996-2006.
“Mum (Trish) and dad struggled financially. We had no television as kids, but the thing we had in our house was love, encouragement, family ... and football.
“Dad was coached by Wayne Bennett (the seven-time premiership coach now at South Sydney).
“Wayne coached a lot of the fundamentals: draw-and-pass, correct passing technique, correct tackling technique.
“Dad passed it onto us and we’ve passed it onto our kids.
“Dad is one of the best coaches we had. He taught us subtleties. Body language type stuff. The way a halfback would look. A hooker doing a certain hand signal. Identifying fatigue in certain opponents.
“It’s stuff you can’t really coach.”
Instead, it is honed via experience and bush footy wisdom. Family secrets and tips crafted, tweaked and sculpted by a multi-generational passion for football that straddled the Bulimba Cup, the Brisbane State League and the National Rugby League.
Sam’s father, Ben, is the eldest of the four Walker brothers. Now 44, he amassed 150 top-grade games, his passion for the game stoked by trips to Bishop Park to watch his old man Garry rub shoulders with Norths colleagues including Kiwi Test great Mark Graham and Stan Napa, the father of Queensland Origin hitman Dylan.
“I guess you can’t beat genetics. The game is on both sides of our family for generations,” says Ben.
“I remember watching dad on the hill when I was four years old in 1980. I’d go to training and meet Joe Kilroy, Greg Conescu and Mark Murray. They even gave me this little Norths Devils tracksuit.
“The following year, dad went to Brothers to be coached by Wayne Bennett. Me and Wayne’s son Justin would kick the footy on the hill.
“Our instincts probably got Shane, Chris and myself to the NRL. It’s weird. I didn’t wake up every day dreaming of it, but I just thought I will finish school and go and play at the Broncos.
“The game was my life. I would sleep with a football. Every night. I would lay on my back and throw the ball up in the air until I was too tired and nodded off to sleep.”
When Ben moved to Sydney to play for the Northern Eagles in 2001, he remembers walking along Manly beach. His son Sam, now of Roosters fame, was 11 months old, dribbling a soccer ball like Ronaldo.
Locals were so stunned at the sight of an infant with such advanced fine-motor skills they would stop Ben and wife Kylie and say, ‘Your boy is amazing’.
“Sam has a remarkable football brain,” says his 41-year-old uncle Chris, the third of the Walker brothers who played 151 first-grade games, including six Origin matches for Queensland in 2001-02.
“When he was seven years old, he would watch games on TV with Ben. He would say, ‘Dad, how come they didn’t go down the short side there, they had a three on two’.
“He has more talent in his little finger than I did in my whole body and I played State of Origin.
“From his youngest days, he could just read a football game.”
In retirement, Shane and Ben Walker coached for a decade in the Intrust Super Cup with the Ipswich Jets. The zenith came in 2015, when they delivered the first premiership in the Jets’ 33-year history.
The bedrock of success was a tactical style known as ‘Contract Football’, a methodology familiar to Toowoomba football locals and spruiked 100 years ago by Warwick legend Duncan Thompson, a 72kg halfback who steered the North Sydney Bears to their only premierships in 1921-22.
“Our philosophy on coaching was based on Duncan Thompson’s mentality,” Shane says. “He coached in our region and his style echoed through football people in the Toowoomba area.
“The idea of contract football is that if there is someone in your team in a better position, give them the ball. That’s the best way to describe it. You had a contract to put your teammate in a better space than you.”
But there was another key educator – the backyard.
“We played backyard footy, hour after hour, and that honed our instincts,” Shane says.
“There was also a slope and we would kick the ball against the angle and get the bounce. It created awareness in us as footballers.
“In the middle of the field, there were rose bushes, so you knew you were in strife from the thorns if you got tackled.
“Because we didn’t have television, we had kicking and passing competitions in the family room.
“We never had a lot of money. I remember when Canterbury tried to sign Ben, Peter Moore (Bulldogs patriarch) flew up and we went out to dinner. Mum and dad didn’t want to eat because they only had 20 bucks and they thought ‘Bullfrog’ would make them pay for the feed.
“But life was great. We always had football. The way we played the game shaped us as footballers.”
Mention Sam’s name and both Ben and Shane burst with pride. Off the record, they could talk for hours. On the record, they clam up, wanting Sam to blaze his own path.
“I don’t like talking about Sam publicly because this is his football journey,” Ben says.
“Of course we are proud, but we don’t want to get in his road.”
Sam’s grandfather, Garry, is the tactical patriarch of the Walker dynasty. His footballing life lesson is that, as a coach, he would never break a player’s spirit.
It is a footballing energy that shone in Ben, Shane and Chris ... and now endures in Sam.
“Dad learned so much from Wayne and we took so much from Dad,” Ben says.
“As coaches, we only ever want players to be the best version of themselves. When we played at South Sydney, we saw a lot of kids go through the system and not have the opportunity to be the best players they could be and with the right coaching, they could have been 10-year players.
“When we went into coaching, we wanted players to feel they could trust us and we would care for them and support them to be the best players they could be.
“In the modern era, people today talk about eyes-up footy. I don’t know how you can play eyes-down.
“The game of rugby league is in front of you ... there is no other way to play it.”
DCE backs Walker as his successor
QUEENSLAND skipper Daly Cherry-Evans says Sam Walker has emerged as his halfback successor as coach Paul Green considers inviting the Roosters whizkid to Camp Maroon for this year’s State of Origin series.
Walker’s magical rookie season will continue on Saturday night when he runs onto the Sydney Cricket Ground to face the Broncos club that has copped brickbats for losing the 18-year-old sensation to their Bondi rivals.
The Queensland team for Game One will be named on Monday week and while Walker is not in the frame for an Origin debut, Maroons hierarchy see the benefits of calling him into camp as a development player.
Queensland‘s incumbent halfback Cherry-Evans turns 33 next February and Green is mindful of implementing a scrumbase succession plan that could see Walker wear the Maroons No.7 jumper in the coming years.
Walker has already represented Queensland at under-18s level and Cherry-Evans says it appears only a matter of time before the Roosters young gun becomes a fully-fledged Maroons Origin halfback.
“It’s exciting to see a Queensland kid of his talent coming through,” Cherry-Evans said of Walker.
“I had to wait such a long time to become a genuine Origin half.
“I always thought I was up to it earlier than it came but it‘s important for Queensland to have depth in key positions.
“Every year people question Queensland’s depth but every series we manage to put together the best 17 for each game and they do the Maroon jumper proud.
“Sam is such a freakish talent for his age and the NRL doesn’t look too big for him at all.
“If you play well at NRL level consistently, you will play Origin at some stage and I’d love to meet Sam one day.
“Who knows? He could end up taking my spot.”
Cherry-Evans’ meeting with Walker appears imminent.
Queensland traditionally invite a handful of emerging players to camp to indoctrinate them on the values of the Maroons and Green is keen to expose Walker to the senior Origin system.
Walker is expected to take part in some Maroons training sessions over the next six weeks, although new Queensland coach Green is wary of the hype and will consult his Roosters club coach Trent Robinson.
“We traditionally have some development players come into camp so Sam will be among a number of guys we consider,” Green said.
“I won’t say no at this stage (to inviting Walker), but I am mindful not to put too much pressure on him.
“I will probably talk to ‘Robbo’ as well before I make a final decision.”
The kid from Ipswich made his NRL debut in April and has been a revelation with four tries, 10 try assists and 10 line-break assists from his first seven games.
Walker, who has also represented the Australian Schoolboys, idolised Johnathan Thurston growing up and is determined to emulate ‘JT’ by playing for Queensland in the code’s toughest arena.
“I’m a Rooster through and through but I’m a passionate Queenslander,” Walker said.
“Hopefully one day I can play State of Origin, it’s a dream of mine to wear that Maroon jumper at the senior level.
“At the moment, I need to prove myself in the NRL but down the track I have that ambition to represent Queensland.
“My uncle Chris did it and I would love to follow in his footsteps ... I know how proud my family would be if I played Origin.”
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