NRL 2021: Proud dad reveals why Sydney Roosters rookie Sam Walker is NRL ready

He’s been earmarked as a future Roosters and Maroons star, but Sam Walker’s dad has revealed the scary impact last year’s lockdown had on the teenager.

Sydney Roosters young gun Sam Walker dropped a massive 8kg off his already slight frame while struggling in isolation last year.

But as the most hyped young playmaker to arrive on the NRL’s doorstep in years prepares for his first senior game with the Roosters, his proud father has opened up about why his son is ready to tackle the big boys.

Sam hasn’t played a single competitive game since he starred for the Australian Schoolboys in September 2019.

But that hasn’t stopped his father Ben, a former Brisbane Bronco and now one of Queensland’s most respected coaches, from backing his son to make first grade this year.

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Sam Walker is creating plenty of buzz ahead of the new season. Picture: Roosters Digital

“I will tell you this, I’ll be a bad judge if he doesn’t play this year,” Ben said.

Walker, 18, is scheduled to have a hit out for the Roosters next weekend against Canberra.

And despite coach Trent Robinson saying that Lachlan Lam will get the jump as Luke Keary’s halves partner to start the season, Ben has no doubt Sam is pushing for his shot.

“I think that is a smart thing to do because it takes pressure off Lachie and it takes pressure off Sam too,” Ben said.

“I am not around them every day so I really don’t know just how close he is. But I’d imagine he’d be pretty close.”

Ben even tipped SuperCoach fanatics into picking his son at a bargain price.

“For the price he’s at, I reckon you’d want to get him now,” Ben laughed in relation to Sam being SuperCoach’s equal cheapest buy at $173,700.

“It’s funny you say that because I don’t play SuperCoach but my kids do. And the youngest fella Tyson, he is 14 and he goes to Ipswich Grammar (where Sam also went to school). And they all play SuperCoach there and they are all saying how cheap he was. And our daughter Charlie goes to Ipswich Girls Grammar and they are playing it as well.

Ben Walker with his son Sam in 2003. Picture: Katrina Woodward

“So she comes home and says, ‘Dad, someone saw him on Instagram doing this’, and ‘someone has got him in SuperCoach’. It is hilarious, even the teachers are on to it.

“I was only talking to the kids about this because when you are playing you sort of get immersed in it. You can’t take a step outside and look in, if you know what I mean.

“So it is pretty cool now when you know your boy is in the bubble sort of thing and you are able to sit outside and hear the noise that is going on around it.

“We get to experience that part of it so it is a different journey to when you are playing.”

Though it hasn’t been without some challenges.

Walker’s struggles with homesickness while living in isolation and so far away from family were widely spoken about in league circles last year.

“He lost a heap of weight,” Ben said.

“He lost eight kilos and he didn’t have eight kilos to lose. It affected him like it did a lot of players I guess.

Sam Walker will have a hit out for the Roosters in a trial against the Raiders next weekend.

“But he was living on his own as a 17-year-old with the silly rules they had in place that treated rugby league players like they were lepers. It didn’t help him that’s for sure.”

But the good news is that Sam is in great spirits now, with his weight “well over what he was prior to COVID”.

Cooper Cronk has been working closely with Walker at the Roosters and when the champion playmaker spoke about the youngster’s natural talent, he was glowing.

“He is doing things at training that not too many other people can do in the last years of their careers,” Cronk said.

“He is flamboyant. He is quick. He is sharp. He is reactive. He is instinctive.”

But Cronk also made the point that Walker is young, and needs time to develop.

“He just needs to learn the game,” Cronk said.

“He is building from the bottom up.

“He just needs to go back and understand physicality, reading defensive lines. Once he starts understanding the knowledge of footy … (Cronk whistled).”

Cooper Cronk says Sam Walker has a lot of learning to do. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

The other matter that is also starting to gain some traction relates to Sam’s future given he is off contract at the end of the season.

No doubt rival clubs will be sounding him out and the Roosters won’t want to let him go.

But for now Ben said his son just needs to focus on the game he grew up loving back in Brisbane while watching his dad help coach the Ipswich Jets.

“He has been around the Jets for 12, 13 years, so he has been training with first-grade players for as long as he could kick a footy,” Ben said. “He is pretty used to it.

“I’m nervous. I am so nervous. It is like debuting again.

“Actually, Lote (Tuqiri) rang yesterday to see how he was.

“And Lote said, ‘who are they playing next week?’

“When I said Canberra, he said, ‘Oh f***, there is some big fellas at Canberra’.

“I said, ‘Lote, they are all big to us (with Ben himself a former halfback)’.”