Reece Walsh has vowed that criticism won’t break him, delivering a fearless attacking display as the Brisbane Broncos moved closer to premiership contention with a 38-28 win over the Dolphins.
From a match-turning 40-20 to breaking 10 tackles and scoring 18 points, Walsh produced a masterclass on the field, sending a message to NRL rivals and proving the doubters wrong about overplaying his hand.
When asked if criticism of his playstyle affected him, Walsh replied: “It’d be pretty easy for me to shy away and not want to put my hand up.
“I feel if I ever did that, it’d probably be dishonour to myself to let someone else do that and just sit back and not chase the game.
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“I’ve just got to keep working on my process, doing my job and I’ll take whatever criticism it is if I’m trying to be the best teammate I can.”
Against the Dolphins, Walsh ran 15 times for 170 metres, breaking 10 tackles, producing three linebreak assists, two offloads, and kicking seven goals from eight attempts in the absence of injured captain Adam Reynolds.
“I feel like I just had a really narrow focus and I didn’t think about too many things. I just wanted to do my job,” Walsh said.
Walsh and halfback Ben Hunt orchestrated the win, despite key players Ezra Mam, Selwyn Cobbo, and Reynolds watching from the sidelines.
Despite being out of the top four and still fighting for a finals spot, Walsh believes the Broncos have the talent and mentality to succeed and win the NRL premiership.
“I think 100 per cent we do, we look at the roster that we have, we took a lot out of last week and the way we fought, a lot of lessons,” he said.
“We worked really hard throughout the week to just do our role and do our jobs and obviously it hasn’t been the best season for us, but I feel like if we can keep knuckling down, working hard for each other, anything’s possible.
“I’m just proud of the way the boys trained throughout the week, new spine pretty much.”