Opinion
Sam Walker is still only 21 but after living and breathing rugby league before he was in kindergarten, the Roosters are about to benefit from his “lifetime” of experience.
Walker is now 59 games into his NRL career and has shown in the first three rounds of 2024 that he is now ready, physically and between the ears, to be an elite playmaker.
Long touted as a star of the future, Walker looked like a boy among men in the first three years of his NRL career.
Now he not only looks stronger, even though he’s still listed at a lightweight 78kg, but he appears to have more time with the ball in hand.
In less of a rush, which was an Achilles heel when he was finding his feet at NRL level.
It’s hard for any player to adapt to the pace and physicality of the NRL, particularly when you are 18, have a famous surname, have been touted at the next big thing, play for the Roosters and are a fraction of the size of pretty much everyone else on the field.
Walker’s first season in the top grade was not only fast-tracked but he played many more games than the Roosters were planning after Luke Keary went down in Round 3 with a torn ACL.
After managing 21 appearances in his rookie year and proving the hype was well founded, he backed that up with 25 the following season and was able to build up a halves partnership with Keary.
But in both seasons the Roosters exited in the first week of the playoffs and having two small halves added up to a whole lot of targeting from opposition forwards on the edge of the ruck.
Walker hit the first form slump of his career early last season and paid the price for the Roosters’ 3-3 start when he was dropped to the NSW Cup and a subsequent knee injury ruined what should have been the year when he took the leap.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
He regained his place a couple of weeks out from the finals and his field goal managed to get the Roosters into the second week of the playoffs but it was a lost season in many ways.
Walker’s not the first young star to get dropped and won’t be the last.
Whether it’s the sting of that proverbial slap in the face, the benefits of a full pre-season or the fact he’s reaching that level of experience where players are finally comfortable with the rigours of the NRL, he’s now the Roosters’ chief organiser and the player who can take them to their first Grand Final in five years.
If he hadn’t been forced off the field due to a concussion call early in the second half last Friday night at Allianz Stadium, the Roosters could have put 60 on the Rabbitohs, although no Tricolour fan was unhappy with the 48-6 scoreline.
He scored the second try of the rout with a fortuitous, but mainly clever, piece of play where he grubbered into a defender, then toed the ball ahead again.
“It’s so good to see a halfback who’s willing to back himself and play outside of the structure,” said no less than Immortal playmaker Andrew Johns in Nine commentary.
Walker backed up to score his second after spinning the ball wide and the Roosters were up 24-0 when his night ended early seven minutes into the second half.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson does not put much credence into the theory that dropping Walker last year has been the catalyst for his 2024 revival.
His off-the-cuff style has led to comparisons with another of Ipswich’s favourite sons in Allan Langer, while his father Ben and brothers Chris and Shane have famously espoused an unpredictable philosophy both in the way they played in the NRL and as coaches in the Queensland Cup.
“It’s got nothing to do with last year, he’s had that since he was a kid,” Robinson said on Wednesday in the lead-up to Thursday’s blockbuster against premiers Penrith.
“He’s been playing that way for a long period of time. He does that every day at training, he’s always looking for space and it doesn’t matter where it is, he will go and find that.
“It is rare the way that he moves and kicks, and second kicks often have a real benefit for him as well.”
Walker has been allowed to suit up against the Panthers after the club successfully applied to the NRL for what was assessed a concussion by the bunker’s independent doctor following a tackle on Jack Wighton.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson talks with Sam Walker. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Because it had been rated a category-one concussion, he was not allowed to return but Robinson said it was clear-cut from their perspective that Walker had not suffered a head injury.
“To go to a category one we felt was too far and obviously the NRL saw that, which was a positive process. It’s a good process because they are independent,” he said when asked if he had concerns about the bunker’s doctor intervening in games.
“It’s very rare, but when they over-correct a little bit like they did, I think there’s a couple of occasions where it’s been reversed.
“Sam wasn’t concussed or wasn’t even close. He had a sore neck, but not a sore head.”
The Roosters will be without Test prop Lindsay Collins due to a hamstring strain while five-eighth Sandon Smith soldiered on for most of the win over Souths with a hyper-extended elbow and now faces at least a month on the sidelines.
Keary’s return from his own head knock offsets the loss of Smith, who put in his best NRL performance against Souths, laying on two tries after Walker was prematurely benched.
His namesake, centre Billy Smith, is out for two months after he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and had to have surgery, depleting the club’s depth in the outside backs.
While the Roosters have a few injury concerns, they have been flipped into favourites for Thursday’s match on the back of Nathan Cleary being ruled out with a hamstring strain but Robinson was not buying into any talk that the premiers are there for the taking.
“Our focus has been very clear about what we want to get out of ourselves. We haven’t performed how we want against this team, they’re coming to our home and we want to perform better so that motivation is really clear for us.”
It’s still too early to judge how many teams have a realistic chance of dethroning Penrith this year but the Roosters are definitely one of the leading contenders.
And if Walker’s progression continues to gather pace, they have the strength right across the park to support their halfback live up to the hype which has surrounded him since he burst onto the scene way back when in that faraway time known as 2021.
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