NRL 2021: Why Sam Walker chose Roosters over rival clubs

Sam Walker looked a natural when he made his NRL debut for the Roosters. There’s a reason he ran out for the tricolours and not at any of the raft of other NRL clubs that pursued him.

Sam Walker will make his NRL debut against the Warriors on Sunday. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

As the Queensland sun began to sink into the horizon, Ben and Kylie Walker would peer through their kitchen window.

Positioned on a two-and-a-half acre parcel of land, the Walker’s Ipswich home boasted a backyard with freedom to move, which to a seven-year-old Sam Walker, was a field of dreams.

Back then, a Sunday afternoon at the hallowed Sydney Cricket Ground, where 1000km away, Walker, 18, made his NRL debut for the Sydney Roosters on Sunday, would have been inconceivable.

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Through their kitchen window, Ben and Kylie would watch son Sam bounce around with his Steeden like a grasshopper; jumping, stepping, twisting and darting past his younger brothers, Jackson and Tyson and little sister Charlie.

Standing opposite Sam in the backyard, was a 15-year-old Kurt Capewell.

Roosters young gun Sam Walker will make his NRL debut against the Warriors. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

The former Cronulla and current Penrith and Queensland State of Origin forward went to boarding school down the road at Ipswich Grammar and spent every afternoon at the home of his family friend’s, the Walkers.

“We’d play every afternoon if we could,’’ Capewell said. “He’d (Walker) beat the littler ones, so I’d have to get one over him on the field, just to keep him in-check.

“The thing with Sam was, even back then, he had an incredible footy brain.

“I recall in one of his junior games at Ipswich, he made a referee change a decision when he was about seven.

“He’d pulled-off a one-one-on steal on a player, but the referee blew a penalty against him.

“And so Sam went over and lectured him on the rule book.

“Have you ever seen a referee change his mind? Well, Sam made him.”

From their kitchen window, Ben and Kylie earned an exclusive preview to Capewell’s own NRL-proven talent which continues to evolve at the high-flying Panthers.

Ben, the former Brisbane Broncos half and Ipswich Jets coach, would comment to Kylie that Capewell, with what he was doing in their backyard, was destined for the NRL.

On Sunday against the Warriors, the Walker’s backyard will have proudly furnished two NRL players.

The Walker family footy games, where the constant promotion — not demotion — of a style cultivated from playing without fear to attack from anywhere in the backyard or on the field, is both why Walker made his NRL debut on Sunday — and importantly, why he’s done so at the Roosters and not at any of the raft of other clubs, that pursued him.

Panthers back-rower Kurt Capewell used to play in backyard footy games with Sam Walker. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Not that the first grade debut of the teenager, who shares a flat with Aussie Sevens player Charlotte Caslick in Sydney, is a surprise to anyone that knows anything about rugby league.

Sunday’s proud moment was bound to happen.

This is a young man, who if he had continued in rugby union, where he played No.10 at high school for Ipswich Grammar, the Wallabies would already be drawing up his shirt size.

If Roosters fans are worried that Walker will be overawed by the prospect of playing with and against men more than 10 years older and that he is laced with the pressure of replacing injured champion Luke Keary at the scrum base, think again.

“Put it this way, Sam began training with the Ipswich Jets (in Queensland’s Intrust Super Cup competition) when he was 13,’’ Capewell said. “(Brothers) Ben and Shane (Walker) coached the Jets and Sam would jump in every pre-season.

“The year I was leaving (2015), he came in for the pre-season and he was throwing 20-metre cut-out balls, left to right, right to left. He was still a kid.

“And there he was tearing up grown men from the Queensland Cup.”

Sam Walker was a star No.10 for Ipswich Grammar in the GPS rugby competition.

Ask his past school, QLD under-18 or Broncos coaches for a line to draw comparison with, perhaps another halfback from any other era that Walker is like and the answer is … nobody.

Under the tutelage of his father Ben and uncle Shane, whose unconventional coaching style of short kick-offs and ad lib footy delivered the Jets the premiership in 2015, Walker has been taught to play like no other previous halfback.

Get your hands on the footy, attack the space and don’t sit back waiting for an opportunity. Just go for it.

His skill-set is wide and varied. In particular, the teenager boasts one particular pass in his armoury, which the NRL has never seen.

Difficult to describe on paper, the unorthodox pass will feature on highlight reels when the moment comes for Walker to produce it in first grade. You’ll know it, when you see it.

And while the list of clubs wanting to sign Walker out of high school was long, it was the teenager’s belief that Roosters coach Trent Robinson would allow him to express his natural ability, rather than dumb it down, that resulted in his arrival at the club from the Broncos as a 16-year-old.

Sam Walker has impressed Roosters coach Trent Robinson since joining the club. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

At a cafe in Coogee, almost three years ago to the day, Walker met the Roosters for their final contract pitch over breakfast with Robinson and Keary.

The night before, in round 4 2019, Keary had torn apart the Broncos.

As they sat sipping orange juice, Keary began divulging how he had driven the Roosters to a seven-tries-to-one victory over Brisbane.

Keary freely articulated a complete breakdown of the Roosters game-plan as the 16-year-old sitting opposite lobbed questions with footy language so direct and comprehensive that most other teenagers wouldn’t understand.

When Keary and Robinson left breakfast they walked away thinking the same thing.

This kid will play NRL one day.

Ben and Kylie already knew that. They saw it from their kitchen window.