NRL 2021: Sam Walker and Nathan Cleary can reproduce Allan Langer-Ricky Stuart halfback rivalry
He has taken the NRL by storm, some say he has a brilliance like we haven’t seen in a young half in years. So, should Sam Walker get his chance in the game’s showpiece in 2021?
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Watching Sam Walker play footy is like watching a magic show. You just sit in awe and marvel how the hell he does what he does. Then you want to see him do it again.
Which is why he reminds me of Allan Langer. And in turn, why this has the potential to set up the greatest rugby league halfback rivalry since “Alfie” and Ricky Stuart were fighting it out for the Australian No.7 jersey in the 1990s.
Right now you look at Nathan Cleary’s dominance and automatically think the Penrith captain will own the NSW and Kangaroos halfback spots for as long as he stays fit.
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Then you see the young Sydney Roosters wizard go out and do what he did against Newcastle last weekend and you can’t help but think if Walker continues to develop at the rate he has in his opening five games, by this time next year it may be a completely different argument.
In fact, I’ll go even further ahead of Walker’s showdown against Parramatta’s inform Mitchell Moses in Friday night’s blockbuster and say there are some with a far greater football knowledge than me who believe young Walker wouldn’t be out of his depth if he was thrown into State of Origin this year, however ludicrous that may sound.
While the teenager looks to have a body not anywhere near physically ready to handle Origin intensity, the quality of his football (even allowing for his current shoulder injury, which only highlights his toughness) is so unbelievably ahead of where his age suggests that he could already make the difference in any game he plays.
And talk gaining momentum is that Walker just has to be somewhere in and around that Queensland squad this year even if it is only to get him ready for the future.
Because this is the trajectory Walker’s career is now on, where everyone across the game is marvelling at not only his meteoric rise but that take-your-breath-away brilliance like we haven’t seen in a young halfback in years.
Of course, plenty of teenagers have come through and instantly handled the pressure of first grade, but very few have worn the No.7.
The ones that come immediately to mind were Cleary, Craig Gower, Andrew Johns, Geoff Toovey, Greg Alexander, Phil Blake and Peter Sterling.
But it also takes a special footballer to make fans put aside their club allegiances and just sit back and enjoy watching a player create rugby league wizardry like Walker can.
Yet this is exactly how many I have spoken to since last Saturday night felt when Walker went out and pulled Newcastle apart at the seams like he had been doing it for a decade _ with his phenomenal arsenal of passing, kicking, running and an overall ability just to spot and seize an opportunity.
His five try assists was not only a Roosters club record but right up there with the masterclasses you saw watching the greats like Andrew Johns and Johnathan Thurston in their prime.
After five games Walker now has 12 try assists, second across the NRL to only Jarome Luai’s 13, along with 13 linebreak assists, which is second only to Luai’s 14.
And don’t forget this kid is still 18, and Luai’s tally comes from eight games.
I also find it remarkable how the contrasting styles of Walker and Cleary almost replicates what we saw back in the days when Langer and Stuart were going at it.
Throughout the early ‘90s they played five straight Origin series going head-to-head before Super League interrupted the run, and there was always this debate about who was the best.
While it was almost impossible to give a definite answer, it often came down to whose team was on top at the time, or which side of the border you were born.
In so many ways Cleary is the modern day equivalent of Stuart with his ice cool composure and clinical execution.
But I have not seen a closer resemblance to the magical way Alf could take charge of a game than what was on show from Walker against the Knights, with the exception of Johns and Thurston on their very best days.
It’s also incredibly coincidental Walker just happened to cut his teeth playing in the same footy-mad Queensland town as Langer.
It’s a great story how when the Walker’s moved to Ipswich so Sam’s dad Ben and uncle Shane could coach the Jets that they made sure the then six-year-old Sam started playing with Alf’s old junior club at Norths.
While Sam’s overall style today is hugely different in that Sam is so perfectly correct in his techniques and Alf was always so unorthodox, there is still this uncanny brilliance that draws them together.
The parallels between Walker and Cleary’s background are also uncanny. Both have first-class lineage and education from fathers who were long-time first graders who went into coaching.
Both made their NRL debuts at 18 with great fanfare because of their standout junior reputations, Sam following the path of his dad who also debuted at 18, for the Broncos in 1995.
Both instantly showed maturity beyond their years by embracing their key game-controlling positions and seemed temperamentally suited to handle the hype that came with their emergence, with the important bonus of being surrounded by great club structures and perfect mentors.
And those circumstances often, in the long term, separate the over-hyped naturally gifted teenage whiz kids – and we’ve seen plenty – and those who survive the early ‘superstar in the making’ labels and the attention from opposing teams and pressure to perform weekly that is the next step in their development.
From what I’m hearing Sam Walker is the type that will handle everything that’s about to be thrown at him, just like Cleary did five years earlier.
And although their rivalry might not have kicked off yet, I get the feeling it’s just around the corner.
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