The Tackle: How Selwyn Cobbo exposed ‘erratic’ Reece Walsh, as star fullback takes a dig at Bulldogs
Reece Walsh handed the Bulldogs even more ammunition to avenge their sobering loss to the Broncos – but one club legend has questioned whether he should even be the fullback for the return bout.
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Brisbane star Reece Walsh just handed the Bulldogs even more ammunition to avenge their sobering loss to the Broncos the next time the sides meet again.
Sidelined with a knee injury, Walsh couldn’t help but twist the knife in a not-so-subtle dig at the Bulldogs after Thursday night’s 42-18 win sent the undefeated ladder-leader crashing back down to earth.
“My dawgs are havin’ a party,” posted with a fire emoji alongside the final score.
Walsh was mocking Canterbury’s team song ‘The Dogs are having a party’, in a social media insult that will not go unnoticed by the Bulldogs.
It lights the fuse for a fiery encounter the next time the sides do battle again in Round 18.
But it also does little to soften Walsh’s reputation as a rock star lair, especially when he wasn’t part of Brisbane’s emphatic victory.
Selwyn Cobbo has been charged with replacing Walsh, who is expected to be sidelined for four to six weeks, in the no. 1 jumper.
But according to club great Justin Hodges Cobbo did more than just deputise for Walsh.
Cobbo exposed the blueprint needed at the back for the Broncos and it’s not an ‘erratic’ Walsh.
“I think that’s (Cobbo at fullback) what they need,” Hodges said.
“It’s no disrespect to Reece, we love the way he plays but sometimes he can be a little bit too erratic.
“I just don’t think we need that.
“We’ve got so many dangerous players in that Broncos outfit, I think Selwyn just did his job tonight.
“He didn’t try to get too creative, he didn’t try to draw and pass, he didn’t try to get on the block shape.
“He took his medicine when he had too. When you have Reno, Hunt, Billy Walters and the forward pack just let them do the work.
“That’s what Selwyn did, he just chimed in when he had too.”
He finished the Bulldogs win with a try assist, a linebreak assist, four tackle breaks and 119 run metres, sparking a discussion about whether Cobbo has a future in the No.1 jumper at Red Hill.
What also stood out was the fact that Cobbo did not overplay his hand, a trait Walsh can be guilty of at the back especially when down on confidence and searching for ways to stamp his mark on a game.
Cobbo is off-contract and expected to draw plenty of attention but the Broncos want to keep him, it’s a similar story for Walsh.
If Brisbane retain both it won’t be long before the discussion turns to whether a move into the halves for Walsh, alongside Ezra Mam, with Cobbo at fullback is the future make-up of Brisbane’s spine.
It’s a move Maroons coach Billy Slater, who is widely regarded as the game’s best ever fullback, believes has merit.
“He’s a different player to Reece and they’ve done this without Reece, put 50 points on the team that everyone’s talking about without probably their most dynamic attacking player,” Slater said on Sunday Footy Show on Channel 9.
“He’s (Cobbo) more powerful, he plays a different style.
“I thought he was really good. I think it’s probably his best position long term … for a quiet guy he is always in the game.”
BEAN COUNTERS
There’s no way the NRL’s salary cap auditor can seriously consider a $300,000 one-year deal for Adam Reynolds to play on at Brisbane in 2026.
Not when Reynolds is still delivering kicking masterclasses, like he did against the Bulldogs when the veteran halfback had the ball on string … and in torrential conditions.
Reynolds looked every bit the million-dollar halfback as he kicked a 40/20, set up three tries, nailed four from five conversions in wet condition and his general play kicking put the Bulldogs to the sword.
The Broncos are facing a salary cap squeeze and can only offer Reynolds around half of what he is earning in 2025.
Reynolds does turn 35 in July and has had his injury concerns but his value to Brisbane as a general halfback is no different to Jahrome Hughes at Melbourne or Nathan Cleary at Penrith.
He’s not the only Broncos star set to cause the club a retention headache.
There will be a long list of clubs, even rugby union ones, that will have a blank cheque for powerhouse prop Payne Haas who is off-contract from November 1 and already on $1.1 million per season.
Haas is a generational talent in destructive form, and with expansion on the horizon Haas could command the kind of money that would cement him as the highest paid player in the game.
PANTHERS PLUMMET
Two moments summed up the extent of Penrith’s fall from grace over the weekend.
The first was Dylan Edwards’ trip – which he was fined for by the match review committee – trying to stop a Tommy Talau try.
In a moment of desperation Edwards, one of the game’s genuine clean skins, came up with the most uncharacteristic foul.
Liam Martin is known for being a firebrand but against the Sea Eagles his frustration boiled over and he was pulled up for verbal dissent on referee Belinda Sharpe.
Again, uncharacteristic behaviour from one the side’s most experienced player.
What is becoming a characteristic, however, is the palatable frustration of the four-time premiers at their dramatic form slump.
The Sea Eagles ran through three tries down Penrith’s very shaky left hand channel. Fox League’s Cooper Cronk suggested shifting Liam Martin from the right edge to the left to shore up defence.
But the Panthers will need every bit of Martin’s toughness and defensive nous this week with Xavier Willison emerging as a powerhouse on the left edge for the Broncos.
If there was any game halfback needed his bodyguard Martin, it’s this one.
TIGER TAMED
After an emotional boil over and wild sideline scenes on Easter Monday, winger Sunia Turuva cut a calm and mature figure in the Tigers’ golden point win at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday night.
Turuva found himself at the centre of the messy Lachlan Galvin contract saga, and even facing suggestions of bullying, after he sent a photo sent to ‘close friends’ on social media of Galvin’s locker with the song ‘Here Comes The Money was leaked.
But Turuva put all the drama behind him and put his best foot forward against the Sharks.
He was spotted sharing a cheerful moment with Galvin before kick-off.
There was also no signs of bad blood between the duo, who celebrated Turuva’s first try together, and were seen sharing notes throughout the clash.
The winger then helped pull off a try-saving tackle on Cronulla’s Daniel Atkinson at the death sending the game into golden point.
Turuva’s attitude and desperation in defence on Sunday is exactly the response Benji Marshall would have expected from a two-time premiership winner.
CRACKDOWN INCONSISTENCY
The NRL’s head high crackdown has put the bunker under the blowtorch big time, but for the wrong reasons.
Clubs were warned the sin bin would be used for high shots and the referees were reminded of that edict only last week.
So, the 18 sin bins for head high contact this weekend should hardly come as a surprise.
The staunch arguments to scrap the crackdown have come thick and fast – that it will ruin Magic Round, that most of the contact is accidental and unavoidable.
None of that detracts from the fact that the head contact is dangerous and the NRL has an obligation to protect players.
What there should be is more scrutiny levelled at decisions like the one that spared Sitili Tupouniua from the sin bin for clearly raising his knee at Brendan Piakura’s head.
Penrith’s Isaah Yeo should have been sent to the sin bin for clocking Tom Trbojevic flush across the face given the precedent set this weekend.
On Sunday, Kodi Nikorima was marched for a hit on Savelio Tamale but Canberra’s Corey Horsburgh escaped the bin for a similar hit.
The inconsistency in the rulings is what really frustrates fans.
LIKES
DEARDEN DOMINATES
The Maroons are famous for their pick and stick strategy and Tom Dearden’s form will test Queensland’s loyalty to the Cowboys five-eighth.
Dearden stepped into five-eighth, alongside captain Daly Cherry-Evans, in last year’s Origin series to replace Cameron Munster, who was ruled out with a groin injury.
While it’s expected a fit Munster would reclaim his place in the halves, Dearden is not giving up the No.6 jumper without a fight.
He is in close to career-best form and tore apart the Titans, setting up four tries in the 50-18 win.
Dearden has been so good, even Munster believes coach Billy Slater should pick the Cowboys gun.
“Tommy is a freak,” Munster said on Fox League.
“But god he can play. He just keeps getting better and better and growing in confidence.
“I feel like he is very close to getting the jersey, I have to try to suck up to Billy a bit more.
“He’s been playing some good footy, I’d give it to him.”
ROOSTER CROWS
The Roosters could find themselves in a fight to retain Naufahu Whyte after a damaging start to the season has put the boom prop in the shop front window.
Whyte, who is a free agent from November 1, has stepped out of the shadow of Lindsay Collins and Spencer Leniu to stake his place as Trent Robinson’s most valuable prop in 2025.
Whyte’s emergence has also quickly silenced the critics that slammed the Roosters for releasing Terrell May from his two-year million dollar deal – a move which is said to have freed-up much needed cap space.
Rookie forward Blake Steep, Siua Wong and Angus Crichton are also off-contract at the Bondi club.
But Whyte has played his way to the top of the retention priority list.
The Kiwi international is in the top five of metre-eater props, alongside the likes of Payne Haas and Addin Fonua Blake, to start the season.
TOOTHLESS RABBIT
Mastercoach Wayne Bennett had to pull out the interchange card on himself on Friday night, and book an appointment at the dentist.
Already a man of few words, Bennett’s missing front tooth silenced the coach after South Sydney’s loss to Melbourne on Saturday night.
Bennett lost the front tooth in the lead-up of the match, leaving assistant Ben Hornby to face media in the post match press conference.
“Wayne’s tooth fell out, so he’s not talking real clearly so he’s let me have a go tonight,” Hornby revealed.
But Bennett won’t just have a new smile this week but a new-look halves pairing against the Knights at Magic Round after fullback Latrell Mitchell copped a one week ban for a high shot on Sua Fa’alogo.
Livewire Jye Gray, who played in the halves against the Storm, is the obvious replacement for Mitchell at the back opening the door for Josh Schuster to earn first NRL start since August 2023.
Schuster has been playing at five-eighth in NSW Cup, where he set-up two tries in the Bunnies loss to the Eels on Saturday.
HEN AND HER CHOOK
Hen’s parties are usually made of day spas, wild nights out and even cooking classes but an NRL match is the last place you’d expect to see one.
But Chloe Esegbona made an Allianz Stadium detour as she celebrated her last weeks as an unmarried woman to watch her fiance and Roosters star Angus Crichton take down the Dragons on Anzac Day.
Chloe, dressed in white and wearing a traditional hens veil, and around 30 of her friends were on hand to celebrate the 46-18 victory. The couple were spotted sharing a touching moment after the game on the sidelines.
Crichton popped the question last December at the same London bar where the couple had their first date back in 2022.
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