Cody Walker is back playing the football that made him NSW’s first-choice five-eighth last season, helping South Sydney’s attack fire before the NRL’s finals.
Walker had another star outing on Thursday night, having a hand in all four of the Rabbitohs’ tries in their 26-24 win over Wests Tigers.
The form half of the competition at the start of last year before earning his sole NSW jersey, Walker is the first to admit he lost his way at the end of 2019.
But he’s now hit form at the right time of 2020.
The 30-year-old has set up eight tries and set up four in the past seven games, breaking 18 tackles in the process.
At the same time the Rabbitohs have won six of their past seven, and are clearly the best attacking team in the competition over that time.
“He’s playing great. He’s great to watch,” coach Wayne Bennett said.
“In the first ten rounds of last year he was outstanding. Then he got picked in Origin and things went out the back door for him.
“He came back and all the things that can happen with Origin happened to him.
“He struggled late in the season and then had a late start this year (after the restart through suspension).
“But the past six or seven weeks, part of our good run is his good form.”
Walker’s slick hands have been most impressive with Souths cutting teams apart on the edges.
The 36 tries they have scored on his left edge are the most in the NRL for that side, while they have gone at 32 points per game over the past seven weeks.
There are however still some issues.
The fact they switched off and almost let their 20-0 lead slip on Thursday night can’t happen come finals, after they also gave up a 14-6 advantage against Melbourne last week.
Not that Bennett is worried.
“The No.1 priority right now is to keep as many players as healthy as we can,” Bennett said.
“There is nothing wrong with scratching out a win like that. The important thing is that we win, it doesn’t have to be pretty.”
© AAP
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