Stop the abuse: Choice of sunglasses was Reece Walsh’s only grand final week misstep

A few theories are floating around about how Brisbane blew the biggest margin in NRL grand final history and, strangely, not enough of them are about Nathan Cleary.

Instead, there’s a growing focus on the oversized mirrored sunglasses fullback Reece Walsh was wearing as he stepped off the Broncos team bus then swaggered through the dressing-room two hours before the game.

My instant reaction was it was a nod to Dr Emmett Brown, the whacky scientist who wears similar sunnies in the Back to the Future movies. Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads ... because we’ve got a police-escorted team bus, haters!

Reece Walsh and Emmett Brown. Credit: Nine

But the kids – and a couple of boilermakers – inform me the sunnies are indeed “Pit Vipers”, valued at about $79.

Several former players reckon they set Walsh up to fail; a sure sign, they reckon, that he’d overstepped the line from self-confidence into arrogance.

Maybe. Walsh certainly looked like a young player who couldn’t get into the biggest game of his life until the second half. Reminder: he’s 21.

Reece Walsh in action during the grand final.Credit: Getty

This column isn’t about Walsh’s ability nor his mindset, but a defence of the young Broncos star following an incident involving a teenage Panthers fan at Circular Quay last Thursday.

Walsh was being escorted by security from a fan day to the team hotel when the supporter told Walsh that Penrith prop forward Moses Leota was “going to take your head off” in the grand final.

Walsh swung his head around and told the fan, “I’ll take your mum’s” before continuing to walk away.

I know: earth-shattering stuff.

The NRL’s integrity unit is investigating the incident, although there’s already an acknowledgement internally that it’s a minor indiscretion – if you could even call it that. It will surprise if Walsh receives anything more than a warning before being dispatched to some sort of training course in which young players are taught how to bite their tongues.

Some reckon Walsh’s retort was emblematic of rugby league’s poor attitude towards women when it’s nothing more than a silly “your mum” one-liner often heard in the schoolyard.

Instead of turning the incident into something it’s not, let’s consider it for what it is: a social media “gotcha” moment from a young fan who knows he can get away with it.

It’s an example of baiting sportspeople into saying or doing something silly with the video still recording. It’s like the Wallabies fans who filmed themselves calling then England coach Eddie Jones a “traitor” until he charged at them like an angry rhino and tried to fight them.

As someone who has spent most of their adult life around past and present footballers, I can exclusively reveal emboldened fans are talking more trash than ever before.

Take Sunday at Sydney Olympic Park for example.

I was standing alongside former Cronulla captain Paul Gallen ahead of an appearance on The Footy Show when a group of teenagers stood behind him for the play-on shot that was about to happen.

There was some playful banter about him pulling on the boots again and having another pro fight.

Then it got personal.

“You’re a really good-looking guy aren’t you, Gal?” one asked sarcastically.

Gallen turned around and shook his head before the supporter asked for a selfie.

“No, mate,” he said. “You were being a smart-arse.”

When one of the teenager’s parents turned up, he reported that “Gallen told me to f--- off”. A complete fabrication.

Most perplexing about all this was the lippy teenager was wearing a Sharks polo shirt. If this is how they throw shade at the club’s premiership-winning captain, imagine if it was a player from another club.

Imagine if it was Cameron Smith, who tells a story in his 2020 autobiography The Storm Within about the time he got off the bus at the back of Belmore Sportsground and a Bulldogs fan, who looked about eight years old, approached him and spat: “Hey Smith! You’re a grub!”

As Smith wrote: “My jaw nearly hit the ground. The kid’s dad was chuckling as I walked into the dressing-room. It seemed like a snapshot of where society is at the moment. If I took my young bloke to an AFL game and he said, ‘Hey, Dusty Martin, you’re a grub,’ I’d pull him into line straight away. I know what my old man would’ve done to me back in the day if I’d called any player a grub.”

Soon after the exchange involving Gallen, we made our way onto the panel when a couple of older, far braver Broncos fans behind us started up again.

“Gallen’s a wanker,” they said, just loud enough for Gallen to hear but not the microphones.

Evidently, neither of these men has watched the man fight.

Paul Gallen during his win over Justin Hodges last year.Credit: Getty

There’s an argument this type of niggle is the price of fame and fortune and being a superstar athlete and I get all that. Some athletes can handle it better than others.

But the beauty of Australian sport, and in particular rugby league, is fans can freely mix with their heroes. Let’s hope we don’t eventually head down the same path as sports in other countries where athletes have no interaction with their supporter base.

And, if you can’t control yourself, consider this from former Souths and Manly enforcer Ian Roberts, an openly gay former player who once revealed to me that he still gets called a “f-----” from people on the street.

Roberts is 58 but still fit and strong enough to play.

“They always say it from the other side of the road,” he smiles.

The lesson, sports fans: if you don’t have the rocks to say it to their face, don’t say it at all.

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