This is a genuine question, given as I always say my lack of league nous. Why isn't he a half? He has an outstanding kicking game, one of the best passing games in the comp, beats defenders with his footwork, looks like a decent organiser as well....only thing I can think of is that his defence is shaky (which isn't surprising for an 18 year old who didn't play for 18 months).
Oh don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying he doesn’t have all the skills. It’s more that those skills also translate wonderfully well to fullback, which has a lot to do with the role of the modern fullback as a key ‘spine’ player. What we’ve seen Walsh do so far is the proof in itself that fullback is a great place to showcase running, passing, and even kicking skills. I almost think it’s a bit old fashioned to think your best players needs to be halves these days. Look at the best players in the comp, and how many are fullbacks vs halves.
This may be controversial but I also wonder if fullback is sort of an ‘easy’ position to stand out these days. It’s one of the few positions where you get a lot of broken field running and get to throw a lot of ‘money balls’ without the pressure of controlling the team. I wonder if it’s purely coincidence that so many fullbacks seem to be gun players.
Also AFAIK Walsh has mostly trained and played at fullback and so is just more comfortable in and familiar with the role. I also suspect that while all of the raw materials are there, it’s unlikely that he’s actually all that polished as a 6 or 7 yet. Fullback is a great spot for him to show off the full range of skills without having to mentally carry the burden of directing the team around.
To summarise - in an elite team fullback is probably the ideal position for him to maximise his attributes at the moment, but in our team he is arguably the best 6 or 7 we have even if that isn’t his best position.
