To the untrained eye, Reece Walsh looks like he’s making it up as he goes along. A flick pass here, a goose step there. Maybe a short-side raid or a chip-and-chase, as likely to come out on the first tackle as the last. How can opposition defences know what’s coming because the flying fullback seemingly doesn’t know himself?
But this is where the rugby league world has got it all wrong.
The greatest dummy Walsh has ever sold is the notion that he’s doing it all off the top of his head. That the audacious plays that make highlight reels when they come off - and give Brisbane coach Michael Maguire a coronary when they don’t - are the result of unscripted, ad-lib football.
Nothing is further from the truth.
“The way I play, people think it’s off the cuff and it’s just luck, but the hours spent in the video room, watching teams, watching how they defend, their habits and tendencies, my brain doesn’t stop,” Walsh says.
“The way I play, people enjoy watching it, but it’s [about] the things they don’t see; the hours that I put in on the [training] field, even with ‘Madge’ [Maguire], going over plays, picking his brain about things.
“I’m very passionate about my footy. I want to try to be the best player I can be and it’s something I pride myself on, working hard and spending those hours on the training paddock when there’s no one around watching.”
Sit down with Maguire, and he’ll describe Walsh as a student of the game. Whether it’s spending countless hours on the training track or forever studying video footage off it, the fullback’s workday is longer than most.
It prompts the question; is the most flashy, flamboyant star in the game a footy nerd?
“You tell me,” Walsh laughs. “If you’re watching every single game every week, watching my games back, is that a footy nerd?
“I don’t really think that’s being a footy nerd, that just comes with it. I don’t know, it’s not a one mould fits all. It’s just what I enjoy doing, trying to be the best I can for myself.
“If that’s watching a bit more video, working on a few more things. I’m not the only guy who does it. There’s a lot of guys in our squad that work extremely hard on their craft to be the best.”
The greatest fullback of the modern era, Billy Slater, was given simple riding instructions from Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy. Slater was given the freedom to express himself however he liked on the football field, but only if he first perfected the play at training. It’s a similar relationship between Walsh and Maguire.
“100 per cent. If I haven’t got something right, if I haven’t trained it, that’s when he is disappointed,” Walsh says.
“He does say a lot about putting those hours and extras in. Even after our trainings are done, we practice things and it comes out in the games.
“The time spent practising stuff, you might not get it within the first 10 goes or whatever it is, but when you do things right that you’ve practiced, it’s enjoyable. Madge has been awesome.”
The relationship between Walsh and Maguire is less than a season old, although Maguire would have liked it to have commenced earlier. Walsh has New Zealand heritage and Maguire attempted to get him to pledge his allegiance to the Kiwis when he was coaching the national team.
“He did, that was my first year, in 2021, he asked me to be part of the Kiwis,” Walsh says.
“I declined it, with all due respect. I love Queensland and Australia. That’s not to say that I don’t love the Kiwi side of me, but I grew up here and that’s what I want to represent … I will always put my hand up to represent Australia.
“To be able to put my last name on one of them jerseys, I would be doing my family proud.”
There are few opportunities to escape from football, or the public view, when you’re the shiniest star in rugby league. The Broncos No.1 has 540,000 Instagram followers, more than every single NRL club, save for his own. Christened as the “Justin Bieber of rugby league”, by ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys, he is one of the biggest stars in Australian sport.
There was a brief respite, of sorts, from public life on Wednesday when Walsh was unveiled as the ambassador of AUSX Supercross in Redcliffe. It was a chance for the Maroons star to take his four-year-old daughter, Leila, to a promo event at Kayo Stadium.
Asked should Maguire be concerned about the prospect of his star player on a motorbike, Walsh quips: “If he saw me ride, I don’t think he’d be too worried, I’m elite.
“I take my footy very seriously, that’s always going to be the number one priority. Having a daughter, that gets you away from footy.
“Every single day you come home and she’s got a smile on her face. Being able to experience these moments with her, it’s what pulls me back to feeling like a kid again.
“I remember getting hand-me-down pants and boots from my brother to ride his motorbike. To be sitting here and kitted out on a motorbike with my daughter is pretty special …
“To show her what hard work gets, to not let anyone put you down or say things, to persist through that and put one foot in front of the other. I want to be the best role model that I can for her.
“Obviously I slip up here and there, but I try to keep working hard and putting one foot in front of the other, then I’m doing a decent job.”
Whenever Walsh steps out in public, particularly in Queensland, he is mobbed. Everyone either wants a piece of him or has an opinion. Take last weekend, for instance. After a stellar performance, the only thing anyone wanted to talk about was his decision to selflessly gift Kobe Hetherington a try in the forward’s milestone game.
Perhaps it’s one of the reasons why Walsh grants few interview requests, instead opting to give fans a glimpse into his private life through his own YouTube channel.
“It’s what comes with it,” says Walsh of life in the NRL fishbowl.
“I haven’t shied away from it as such, but I don’t put myself out there as much any more. I’ve obviously been in the spotlight since I was 18 years old. It’s nice to get some privacy when I can.”
Feted and occasionally berated when he walks down the street, life could have been very different for Walsh had it not been for football.
“I’d probably just be an average tradie,” he says. “My old man is a chippie and I don’t mind getting around him and doing some stuff around the house.
“That’s another little passion I’ve found over the last few months, seeing things come to light, a vision become a reality, something you can touch.
“From a young age it’s just been footy. I didn’t get to have that quality time with my old man that I do now.
“I enjoy getting on a hammer, knocking some things down and him teaching me how to use tools, those sorts of things.”
Sydney Morning Herald
