Why Roosters rookie Walker needed a needle to make debut
By Andrew Webster
April 10, 2021 — 6.00am
A shirtless SamWalker plops down on the seat in front of you, outside Roosters headquarters in Moore Park, and the first thing you notice is the bag of ice strapped to his left shoulder, held in place by plastic wrapped around his torso.
He’s just seen the physiotherapist.
Sam Walker during his Roosters debut against the Warriors.Credit:NRL Photos
“It’s nothing,” the 18-year-old says.
Not exactly.
Walker had shoulder surgery when he first arrived at the Roosters in 2019. Last month, he hurt the AC joint in his first tackle of the match while playing for North Sydney against Blacktown.
It meant he had to receive a painkilling injection before
his NRL debut against the Warriors last Sunday night.
“Fair way to debut,” Roosters coach Trent Robinson says.
The revelation about Walker being needled before his first NRL game speaks to his toughness and resilience, just one match into what people expect will be the career of a superstar.
The only question mark – already – hanging over Walker appears to be his size, or lack of it, and the perceived lack of toughness that goes with such a frame.
The attempted moustache on his top lip and mature personality can’t hide the fact he looks like he could be riding one of the top-weights at Randwick on Saturday.
He weighs 78 kilograms. The Roosters are keen to see him push into the 80s.
“The worry’s not the footy – his size is,” Robinson says candidly. “But he’s very strong. If you’re weak when you’re that size, you’re in trouble. But he’ll get stronger. Like Joey [Andrew Johns], Alfie [Allan Langer] or JT [Johnathan Thurston], he’ll get the weight he needs as he keeps going. The boys care for him so they will protect him. He’s their little brother.”
Walker was certainly no speed bump against the monstrous Warriors, although they never quite managed to isolate him in defence as the better teams will do.
What’s important is he’s not scared. He’s not afraid of the contact, whether in defence or attack, as he showed when he dug into the line and laid on a try for Nat Butcher.
He almost seems insulted when I ask as much.
“Definitely not!” he says. “We trained every day last year with Gussy [Angus Crichton] or big Jared [Waerea-Hargreaves] running at me every session. Having bodies like that at you every day means you feel confident tackling anyone in the NRL.”
Walker’s initiation continues on Saturday night when the Roosters host the Sharks at the SCG.
These early stages of his career aren’t just exciting for fans of his club but also the game because he has the ability to change it.
He could actually bring it back to something it once was; a halfback playing on-the-ball, unencumbered by the coach’s instructions, playing what’s in front of him, passing long or running at the line, running the show like a boss.
“Eyes-up footy” has become the most overused - and misused - term in rugby league but, in Walker’s case, it precisely describes how he plays.
He learnt the importance of playing what’s in front of him from his father Ben and uncle Shane, who were both streetwise players before revolutionising how the Ipswich Jets played in the Queensland Cup, from short kick-offs to playing front-rowers well wide of the ruck.
In many respects, the rules introduced to the NRL in the last two seasons promote the style of football the Walker brothers have been teaching for years. It’s the style their son and nephew was born to play.
“Their philosophy was to play what you see and don’t be afraid to play footy,” Walker says. “If you see space, don’t be afraid to take it. I’d go into their meetings at the Jets, I’d sit in video sessions, and I’d see how they dissected a game of football. I started to see what they see. Since I was 10 years old, I was training with former NRL players, or fringe NRL players, seeing how they play their footy and listening to their ideas. At the Jets, they let you express yourself - and I can express myself here at the Roosters.”
The cynics will say Walker signed with the Roosters ahead of other clubs, including the Broncos, purely for money. He reportedly signed a
two-year deal at 16 worth $300,000.
In truth, he’d been a Roosters fan since he was a young boy, falling in love with them when Ben woke him up to watch the thrilling final moments of the Roosters’ qualifying final against the Wests Tigers in 2010.
From then on, Walker had team photos on his bedroom wall and begged for a Roosters jumper, much to the bemusement of his father, a former Bronco.
Now, Walker is wearing the No.7 after Luke Keary was sidelined by an ACL injury.
Before his debut, the key part of his game that excited the former halfbacks who had already watched him play was his long ball – an almost forgotten art in this era of block plays and low-risk football.
From the age of eight, Walker and his father would sit on opposite ends of the lounge-room in the family’s home at Burleigh Heads and pass to each other.
“We’d do a hundred passes back and forth,” Walker says. “I was eight, practising my spirals. Then, the way Ipswich played, they made you practise your passes every session because that’s the way you stripped a team away very easily.”
These are early days on the big stage, of course, but Walker’s desire to shake up the way the game is played is supported by his coach.
Robinson was the first to describe Walker to me as an “old-school half”. What did he actually mean by that?
“Coaching’s become more prominent, more controlled and he’s an old-school halfback in the sense that he plays the game with less rules,” Robinson says. “There’s more of a freedom to his play. We didn’t have left and right [players] a few years back. We’ve tried not to play like that the last few years at the Roosters, with Mitchell [Pearce], Cooper [Cronk], although he was more right-sided, then Keary coming into this year. We wanted to recruit that style of player; an old-school half. With Sam, there isn’t that fear of what the guy in the box will say, which is a great thing. He embodies the way a halfback
should play the game.”
Robinson believes it’s the start of a revolution, not just for his side but the NRL.
“That’s the future of the game, to bring some of that back,” he says. “It’s a big burden to bear, but we’re not asking that of him. There’s an absolute respect for the game from him, too. He loves the game and respects the game. But he’s a boy who’s just getting going.”
For all his abundant gifts, perhaps the most pleasing attribute Walker displays is his attitude.
It almost seems fashionable for young footballers to say how much they don’t watch the game they are paid handsomely to play.
Worse still, they lament that they’re not playing in the NFL or NBA or playing golf instead of rugby league.
Not Walker. He’s an unashamed footy addict.
“I live and breathe it,” he says. “I’ve always been around footy players. I try to watch every game. I love it. I can’t get enough of it.”
He shakes his head when asked about players who don’t share his passion.
“I want to watch and learn as much as I can,” he says. “The more I watch, the more I understand.”
The more he plays, the more we’ll be watching.
