OFFICIAL Coby Black to join Raiders in 2026, He's Gone

That's the way Walsh tells the story.

The way it happened, the Warriors lost Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to Rugby and had a hole in their roster. Phil Gould and Peter O'Sullivan had to sign a replacement and so they looked at who was coming through and one name that stood out was Reece Walsh.

In his first game back after his shoulder reconstruction, Walsh showed flashes of brilliance, so much so, the Warriors took a punt and offered half a million before he'd even played a proper professional game.

Walsh took the money and the contract was officially signed before Walsh even played a game of QCup.

Meanwhile the Broncos cap was in dissaray. Players like Jack Bird, Matt Lodge, Tevita Pangai Jr, Joe Ofahengaue etc. was eating up a large chunk of the cap and younger players like Flegler were being paid on promise, not performance.

They needed to make changes and couldn't afford to take risks on younger players. Meanwhile players like Xavier Coates and Tom Dearden were angling for a release, so trying to sort those deals out, without a CEO made life difficult.

So Walsh tells the story that Kevie wasn't willing to play him so he took his services elsewhere. The Warriors didn't immediately pick him either, he played for their affiliate (Redcliffe) and then got an opportunity off the bench. If he had have stayed in Brisbane, he likely would have made his NRL debut in a similar timeline but he chose the money.

Cobbo never stood in the way of Walsh. Isaako was the stop-gap measure at fullback with Niu as the other option. Kevie saw Niu more as a centre and played him there in the absence of Staggs who was recovering from a knee reconstruction. However that edge of Milford, Riki, Niu and Coates just got torn to shreds - the blind leading the blind.
 
Warriors pounced because they knew Reece was "potentially" something special.

Everyone can see the sharp trajectory Reece has taken in the last few years. This does NOT mean he was ready when Kev said wait.

Kev had the players best intentions at heart but would not compromise his plan. Player welfare and team welfare. Kev learned this from Old Master as a tried and tested method of bringing in players

Right or wrong, in the end it worked out.

For every one player that ends up being amazing at a very young age, there are many more that get burnt out by bringing them in too early.

Man management is an extremely LARGE part of coaching, knowing how to cajole players and motivate them at the same time.

Black is a good prospect (not great - like he has been told he was). How he ends up is up to him, Sticky, and his advisors. You never know, he may end up being great and come back to us at some time in the future.

Will be interesting to see his progress in next couple of years - does he sit behind Canberra better options and bounce around again, or does he dig deep, stay focussed and the best player HE can be.

DP
 
Nashy said:
I'll give him shit on that because he was clearly 100% incorrect.
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I disagree.

IMO, if he was brought on slower, he would have reached the level he was at in the back end of this year earlier.

Hell, even at the start of this year there were quite a few people calling for us to cut him loose.
 
Foordy said:
I disagree.

IMO, if he was brought on slower, he would have reached the level he was at in the back end of this year earlier.

Hell, even at the start of this year there were quite a few people calling for us to cut him loose.
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That would have been a mistake too.
 
Kev was 100% right to hold walsh back... but he was 100% wrong in how he approached it. The difference with madge and kev is madge rewards effort over EVERYTHING else and makes players compete for their spot.

Kevvie wanted walsh to rightfully earn the spot, but the players he picked ahead of him hadn't earnt it either. They earnt a shot at it due to their nrl experience, that's all. They then blew it and walsh did the opposite in the trial. Without being privvy to the conversations it looked like walters said to walsh something like "no matter what you do (eg form in qld cup, training, etc) this is the plan for you...."

Madges competition for spots and effort over all else criteria policy brought out the best in the players. The proof is in the pudding. Shibasaki, karipani, gos, talty, paix and smoothy as a middle forward utility are NO WAY having any season under walters even remotely close to the 1 they had with madge. He drained every last drop of talent out of them. Billy walters improved dramitcally as well. Even Mariner looked like he was about to be another "talented, but..." player.

Kevvies biggest strength was also his biggest weakness but he still hasn't realised it by the looks of the ashes.... loyalty... the 17 each week knew who they were no matter what they did wrong... they paid him in spades for 1 year and lived off of it for 3 others. My guess is that would have kept on happening had he stayed the coach.
 
Walsh left because wahs put $1.5m in front of him.

He knew he would've been getting that starting fullback spot at broncos at some point in the year, so it's not really about him wanting to play first grade.

I daresay broncos couldn't match the money wahs were putting up.

Him then wanting to go early is because he would get a huge pay bump from wahs at the same time.

The real issue is that broncos r&r even allowed his contract to get to under 12 months and gave wahs the opportunity to vulture him.

Whoever that was is at fault...
 
Nashy said:
I'll give him shit on that because he was clearly 100% incorrect.
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I think that’s the best ****ing thing Kev brought in as a coach. It was the biggest stain on this clubs football department was the way they handled talent. We have been to 2 grand finals and won a premiership since. If you lose an 18 year old who isn’t prepared to wait than **** them. Walsh has admitted that looking back Kev was doing the right thing.

Absolutely no.1 by a long shot thing Kev has done as a coach and that applies for far more than just the Walsh situation. Based off hype Mozer would have been a mainstay in this side 2 years ago and his cup form since debut has previously been more than enough to secure a permanency in the side pre Kev.

Thankfully it is something Madge also believes in. I do have more faith in Madge to be able to bring the best out of a wet between the ears kid.
 
Nashy said:
I'll give him shit on that because he was clearly 100% incorrect.
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Yeah fair enough mate, I just don't agree

Kev made some mistakes, but this wasn't one of them

Perhaps though the WAY he did it/communicated could have been better?
 
MagicMan87 said:
Problem is Kev said it to a once in a generation player that everyone knew was ready yesterday and our fullback had just retired leaving a spot wide open. He then very consistently picked Cobbo who was far less ready for the rigours of first grade then Walsh was.
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I don't think this is accurate at all
 
john1420 said:
Yeah fair enough mate, I just don't agree

Kev made some mistakes, but this wasn't one of them

Perhaps though the WAY he did it/communicated could have been better?
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It's all based on assumptions, and I doubt I would have done a better job, I'm a far bigger potato. I rate Kev and what he did for the club. We got Walsh back, so that's all that really matters.
 
Walsh had his shoulder operated on at the end of 2019 and didn’t play the whole of 2020.

Come 2021 he hadn’t played for 18 months. Kevvie thought Cup games would be a good place to start for a 19-year-old that hadn't played since September 2019.

He signed with the Warriors two days before he played round one for Norths and scored two tries and then was gone. Yes Norths were told they would have him for the year but that happens all the time. Calder was told he'd have Lockyer for the year too and then never got him back.

If he stays in Brisbane, he is playing NRL roughly the same timeline as he did at the Warriors. He would have played close to the 16 games he did for Warriors.

If you reverse it and Kevvie throws him in round one never played against men, 18 months off and a dodgy shoulder and Sivo kills him everyone changes the narrative and says why would Kevvie play him against men, after 18 months off and a dodgy shoulder.
 
BroncsFan said:
Walsh left because wahs put $1.5m in front of him.

He knew he would've been getting that starting fullback spot at broncos at some point in the year, so it's not really about him wanting to play first grade.

I daresay broncos couldn't match the money wahs were putting up.

Him then wanting to go early is because he would get a huge pay bump from wahs at the same time.

The real issue is that broncos r&r even allowed his contract to get to under 12 months and gave wahs the opportunity to vulture him.

Whoever that was is at fault...
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What would you have based it on to offer him a contract?

Clubs were trying to not get stuck with deals and players not playing given the current climate of League was very uncertain. There was a lot of let's see how we get out of this.

The Broncos thought, he can play Cup see how he goes, recovers from injury and plays men. Clearly they misjudged the Warriors coming over the top with a huge offer but it wasn't unreasonable to re-sign him in May after he's played 10 Cup games and two NRL games.
 
1910 said:
Walsh had his shoulder operated on at the end of 2019 and didn’t play the whole of 2020.

Come 2021 he hadn’t played for 18 months. Kevvie thought Cup games would be a good place to start for a 19-year-old that hadn't played since September 2019.

He signed with the Warriors two days before he played round one for Norths and scored two tries and then was gone. Yes Norths were told they would have him for the year but that happens all the time. Calder was told he'd have Lockyer for the year too and then never got him back.

If he stays in Brisbane, he is playing NRL roughly the same timeline as he did at the Warriors. He would have played close to the 16 games he did for Warriors.

If you reverse it and Kevvie throws him in round one never played against men, 18 months off and a dodgy shoulder and Sivo kills him everyone changes the narrative and says why would Kevvie play him against men, after 18 months off and a dodgy shoulder.
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1000% mate, it's why I have never thought Kev got the Walsh thing wrong, and never will
 
Sproj said:
Didn't the Warriors bounce Walsh around between 1, 6 and 14? Does that imply he was ready or not quite? I'm not sure but an interesting discussion point.
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I think you can clearly see he was ready to play NRL it was just they were trying to figure out his best role in the team.

Every man and his dog who watched that years trial match could see how good Walsh was. He looked fantastic and was clearly the standout. Cobbo from memory played well also and switched sides mid game.

But letting him go was a massive mistake that is only rectified now because he returned.
 
Nine says he’s being released immediately. Not sure how much cash he’s on but might pick somebody up on a discount next year.
 
ivanhungryjak said:
Nine says he’s being released immediately. Not sure how much cash he’s on but might pick somebody up on a discount next year.
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He was on a top 30 contract so we'll get something back, but maybe more important is getting a Top 30 spot back, which is important here given we probably weren't going to use Coby anyway.

I think we now have 3 Top 30 spots open
 
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