
In the frenzy of NRL grand final week, the narratives come thick and past. Of full circle moments, and connections linking the contending clubs. Fairytale returns, motivating slurs, men with something to prove.
But when the players run out on to Sydney’s Accor Stadium on Sunday evening, no competitor will draw more eyes than the Brisbane fullback Reece Walsh. He is a story unto himself, having engineered the miraculous comeback victory over minor premiers Canberra three weeks ago with a performance that was not perfect but more than compelling.
And there he was again last week, emerging as the Shakespearean character who set up the equalising try against the Panthers, but then admitted his vulnerability in handing the kicking tee – having already missed one crucial shot – to Adam Reynolds for the dynasty ender.
“Pretty boy? Yes. Bit of lair in him? Yes,” said broadcaster Matty Johns this week, who had put Walsh’s last 15 minutes against the Raiders as – alongside Nathan Cleary in the 2023 decider against the Broncos – the greatest he had seen. But Johns also said it shouldn’t be forgotten how “tough” the 23-year-old is, highlighting his frantic running game free of self-preservation.
Off-the-field, the playmaker has also had his share of personal adversity. Walsh grew up in Nerang on the Gold Coast with his father Rod and stepmother Jodie, and has had little contact with his Kiwi mother. His daughter Leila, who has become a regular at Broncos games, was born in 2021, but Walsh and Leila’s mother have since separated. That year proved particularly turbulent for Walsh after he was caught in possession of cocaine, and broke down in front of the cameras when issuing a public apology.
But the man they call Reece Lightning appears now to be in a good place. He was brilliant in the Broncos’ unlikely surge to the 2023 decider, and although the team’s struggles under Kevin Walters last year and a knee injury in April have proven hurdles, the fullback appears back on his ascent.
His influence on Brisbane’s play this year has increased, and he has credited his improvement to sports psychologist Jacqui Louder, who also works with the Storm. “She clears my mind, and she helps a lot with my mindset if I’m feeling a certain way or how to approach certain things if I’m feeling down or I’m feeling not quite my best,” he said.
With painted fingernails, a movie-star gaze and a love for the spotlight (he began a video blog on YouTube this year), Walsh is as flamboyant as its gets in the NRL. So when the Storm forward Stefano Utoikamanu said on Monday he thought some of the Brisbane players were “stuck up”, it wasn’t hard to imagine who he was referring to.
“He’s saying that because we get more fans to our games than they do,” Walsh responded. “There’s a lot of talk around the Broncs that we’re show ponies and we don’t want to work hard, but it’s not until you’re in these four walls that you see how hard we work and how much sacrifice we make for each other.”
After four years of NRL dominance by Penrith, known for their powerful but controlled style, the 2025 decider is likely to be less predictable, changing course in an instant. “It only takes 15, 20 minutes when you’ve got someone like Reece Walsh, or the X-factor players they’ve got in their team,” Storm five-eighth Cameron Munster said. “We need to be on high alert for 80.”
These teams scored more points than any other during the NRL season, and Walsh’s threat – alongside experienced playmakers Adam Reynolds and Ben Hunt – is more than matched by the Storm, who boast the most respected spine in the game. Munster, halfback Jahrome Hughes and hooker Harry Grant each have a claim as the competition’s best in their positions, but Munster said the trio still have something to prove.
They are yet to win a premiership without any one of Melbourne’s “big three” of Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk and Cameron Smith, the last of the trio to retire in 2021. “I was fortunate enough to have the big three that pretty much carried me for those two premierships we won [in 2017 and 2020],” Munster said. “To be able to go through that stage of the big three, and now be able to hopefully win one on our own would be really nice.”
Hughes said this group was equipped to win. “The big thing was, a lot of people probably thought we couldn’t win one without those [big three] guys, so there’s a little bit of a driving factor there.”