‘They seem to want to kill him’: Walsh hit highlights league’s dilemma

When Reece Walsh was named to make his State of Origin debut last year, NSW were running through an intense training drill at Coogee Oval.

As one ball was kicked high into the air, designed for the Blues stars to chase down field as quickly as possible, replicating a game scenario they would face later that week, a voice pierced the crisp winter air.

“Get Walshy, the little -—.”

It might have taken a little longer than planned, but the Blues finally got Walshy on Wednesday night.

Joseph Suaalii’s horror tackle left Queensland’s poster boy unconscious and landed the NSW debutant a one-way ticket to the hall of Origin infamy, sent off not even eight minutes into his Blues debut.

Was it a deliberate plan for NSW to attack Walsh, the Maroons’ key man? Or just an unfortunate accident; a legal tactic that went horribly wrong?

Joseph Suaalii was sent off for the high shot on Reece Walsh.

“We’ve got a prodigious talent and even in club games, they seem to want to kill him rather than stop him,” Queensland Rugby League chairman Bruce Hatcher said.

“It’s a tough sport, but I don’t think it’s ideal to say it’s tough because you maimed someone. If you want to take these great talents out of the game, you will lose a lot of people.”

Whether rugby league likes it or not, the sport faces a reckoning with Walsh: a TikTok generation athlete who is winning over new fans in droves, but is so good on the field win-at-all-cost opposition coaches and players are working overtime to figure out which acts of legalised violence can stop him flourishing.

Maroons coach Billy Slater has kept his thoughts to himself on the Suaalii tackle, which has resulted in the rugby union-bound star being banned for four matches. One of Slater’s assistants, Johnathan Thurston, did not.

“If you want to take these great talents out of the game, you will lose a lot of people.”

QRL chair Bruce Hatcher

“They clearly had a target on him and it didn’t turn out right,” Thurston said.

Predictably, that accusation got short shrift from NSW coach Michael Maguire on Thursday.

“Reece was slipping underneath as Joey was coming down at him. It was just an unfortunate act,” he said.

Origin, above any other rugby league arena, is about exposing a weakness in an opposition player, whether they’re injured, fatigued or plain just not up to it.

Walsh was none of those.

Reece Walsh fractured an eye socket against the Panthers in March.Credit: Getty

But after two significant injuries already this year (he suffered a broken eye socket after a head clash with Penrith’s Taylan May in March), it’s clear the 21-year-old is coming under increased on-field scrutiny after having so nearly led the Broncos to last year’s NRL title.

On Friday, his Brisbane coach Kevin Walters said he’d had enough.

“Crossing the line is a big one for me,” Walters said. “That’s the second time that has happened [this year] and four weeks [suspension for Suaalii], for me, is not enough.

“Teams have been targeting the better players for a long time, but I am not in agreement with the suspension. That won’t deter another player from coming out and the next time Reece plays, trying to take his head off again.

“We want our great players to play. It’s not about toughness, because Reece is as tough as any player in the game. The NRL has got to protect him. That’s who’s got to protect him – and be harder on suspensions.”

Asked whether the Blues had a pre-meditated plan, Walters said it was not his role to determine. “But I saw what their actions were,” he said. “You make your own mind up”.

For more than 100 years, rugby league has been a battle between big men and small men, and coaches pushing the boundaries of what’s accepted and what’s not.

Naturally, the bigger men will target smaller rivals. When attempting to tackle smaller halves and fullbacks, the big players will try to inflict maximum pain while staying within the laws of the game. The mental scar that can leave is critical to how the game is played.

If that is enough to create even a modicum of fear or intimidation, and hence a split second of indecision next time they get the ball, then it’s job done. Over the course of a rugby league game, there might be thousands of those instant calls which need to be made.

If a player like Walsh is aware of a player “shooting” out of the defensive line for him, enough to muddy his thinking even for a micro-second, then opposition coaches will consider it a win.

The NRL believes the only intent of its clubs is to pressure rival players, not deliberately take them out of the games through acts of violence.

Last year, it sent a memo to all 17 clubs, seen by this masthead, reminding them of the consequences of players “shooting” out of the defensive line to shut down attackers and making mistakes at speed. The document said the NRL had “identified a concerning number of tackles that have ‘gone wrong’ involving defenders moving ‘up and in’ to shut down expansive attacking raids”. Case in point: Suaalii on Walsh.

Former NSW coach Brad Fittler insists the rhetoric about fans wanting to watch matches like Origin for the anticipation of violent clashes is misguided.

“The entertainment of our game comes from the brilliance, not the violence,” he said. “I don’t think anything Joe did was deliberate. Look at the people playing the game, supporting the game and the money that comes into it. There may be those that say they like the violence, but it’s a myth. People love the brilliance. They love the fact they’re warriors and it’s an incredibly tough game.

“But if you want to make a statement [on the field pressuring an opponent], you’ve got to get it right.”

WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark has been roughed up in her first professional season.Credit: AP

Walsh is nowhere near the first, and won’t be the last, to be subject to attempts of physical intimidation in rugby league, or have his name screamed by rival teams at training in the lead-up to a big game.

Gradually over the years, the NRL has brought in rules to protect kickers and playmakers from late hits after they’ve kicked or passed the ball. It has brought accusations of the game losing its fabric, which the NRL scoffs at.

Other sports have gone way further, actually providing incentives for taking out star players.

In the NFL, the New Orleans Saints were sanctioned for providing cash bounties for defensive players successfully taking out opponents between 2009 and 2012. New Orleans coach Sean Payton was banned for 12 months after a long investigation into “bountygate”.

Even in the WNBA, college record breaker and rookie sensation Caitlin Clark, who is being hailed as having single-handedly transformed the sport in the United States, has copped a physical barrage to start her professional career. One foul from rival Chennedy Carter, which involved Clark’s opponent barging into her from behind off the ball, sent American sports media into meltdown and left millions of television viewers torn.

But where’s the line drawn between legal intimidation and unauthorised violence?

In the NRL’s biggest television audience of the year – and most for an Origin series opener in a decade – Walsh was left with a concussion so bad Queensland medical staff said it was one of the worst they’d seen (predictably, he was suffering headaches the following day).

“He’s not a soft bloke,” Hatcher said. “He’s not looking for any unfair protection. “But if you’re going to allow a person’s livelihood to potentially be taken away by foul play, you haven’t got a very credible sport.”

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