The Broncos share the blame for loss to Eels, but it’s Walsh in the spotlight

Reece Walsh produced one of the worst games of his career on Friday night. Now the Broncos hierarchy have reacted and say they have a plan in place to keep Walsh in his lane.

Broncos captain Adam Reynolds has vowed to rein in Reece Walsh after the erratic Brisbane fullback’s horror night against Parramatta.

Walsh produced one of his worst performances of the season as the Broncos blew an opportunity to stay in touch with the NRL’s top four in a 22-20 loss to the lowly Eels.

The return of Walsh from a knee injury in round 14 sparked a Brisbane revival, with the Broncos turning a run of six losses in seven games into a five-match winning streak.

But their late-season resurgence came to a crashing halt on Friday night at Suncorp Stadium against a 16th-placed Eels team that was prepared to play the long game under returning halfback Mitchell Moses.

On the flip side, the Broncos chased quick sugar hits and no player summed up Brisbane’s foiled strategy more than Walsh.

Reece Walsh looks dejected after the loss to the Eels.

While he produced a moment of brilliance to set up Billy Walters, Walsh came up with three errors and allowed a ball to bounce that led to Parramatta’s first try.

He was also ruled off-side by the Bunker after it reviewed the final minute play which looked to have salvaged an undeserved victory for the Broncos.

Walsh was heavily involved from the opening minutes, playing like a third half, and veteran No. 7 Reynolds said it was his job to keep Brisbane’s confident No. 1 in check.

“We all love what Walshy brings, he’s an excitement machine and a big part of our team and a big reason why we are where we are,” Reynolds said.

“We don’t want to take that away from him but it’s also my responsibility to calm him down at times when he gets a bit sideways.

“The spine generally moves like that anyway (with three playmakers) so there’s different parts of the game where he will get more involved.

“It just depends how the game is going, I suppose.”

The Broncos will likely need to win their remaining six games – and hope for the Storm, Bulldogs or Warriors to falter – to have any hope of sneaking into the all-important top four.

No team in the NRL era has won the premiership from outside the top four (the last team to do so was the Bulldogs in 1995).

Coach Michael Maguire said Brisbane looked for shortcuts against Parramatta and learnt a harsh lesson, with Walsh at the forefront.

Reece Walsh’s try celebration turned sour upon Bunker review. Picture: Getty Images

“He’s going through exactly the same, what we just spoke about, playing the longer game. It’s making choices,” he said.

“We’ll review and go through that and Reecey’s been spectacular for us at times and he had a bit of a tough night in some of the periods of his game

“We just need to be thorough in that and how we go about our roles. The captain will steer that.

Adam Reynolds says it is his job to keep Reece Walsh on track. Picture: Liam Kidston

“Over the last month we’ve captured the things that we want to be, but we’ve got to make sure we do it for longer periods of time.”

Broncos hooker Billy Walters said he expected Walsh to move on quickly from his forgettable night.

“Walshy is pretty competitive but he moves on pretty quickly,” he said.

“You watch him in the game, he might throw a ball over the sideline and two seconds later he’s doing the same play.

“It’s what we love about Walshy. He’s a competitor and he’s a great player.

“We can’t put ourselves in those positions where we’re having to score in the last two minutes to win a game.

“We’ve got to be better than that and we know that. We’ll be better for it next week.”

Originally published as The Broncos share the blame for loss to Eels, but it’s Walsh in the spotlight