NRL Round 26 Review: The Good & Bad With Walsh, Radley Running Lines & Thursday Night Thriller

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Whats to come this week:

• Big Takeaway From the Week: Taking The Good & The …

• Quick Play-the-Balls

  • More Marky Mark

  • But He Has Victor Radley To Thank…

• Setting Up For A Shot: Coaches Setting Up A Thursd …

• Try Time: Long Range On Last

Big Takeaway From the Week: Taking The Good & The Bad With Reece Walsh

Tackle one can make or break a set of six. First up here, we’re breaking down what makes for the biggest talking point of the week.

Reece Walsh v the Cowboys in Round 26:

• 1 Try

• 202 Running Metres

• 5 Linebreak Assists

• 2 Try Assists

• 10 Tackle Breaks

• 3 Offloads

  …

• 5 Errors

It doesn’t get much more Reece Walsh than that across 80 minutes…

It’s all or nothing with the superstar fullback, but unlike so many other attack-first players we’ve seen in recent years, Walsh ends the 80 minutes as a net positive more often than not.

What makes him so dangerous and gives the Brisbane Broncos a chance of beating any team in September is his willingness to attempt the challenging play, and we saw it a few times against the North Queensland Cowboys.

The pass in the build-up to scoring his own try is a beauty.

His plan appears to be around creating a two-v-one on the edge to finish the first half. He uses a lead inside three and wants to burn to two, leaving Braidon Burns to defend Kotoni Staggs and Deine Mariner on his own out wide.

However, upon seeing the two-man jam in an attempt to shut down the shift, Walsh fires a pass across the face of the defending winger to put his own on the outside.

The reaction to the jam is one thing, but the speed to take the ball off his hip and float it to Mariner on the wing is world-class.

The Cowboys defence on both sides compared notes at halftime and used them to pull one back.

It’s a different look for Walsh, but his intentions are similar as he skips across the A defender into B. Billy Walters doesn’t hold his width, which makes the read for Semi Valemei a little bit easier. Still, the Cowboys winger has an eye out for the cutout pass after the try conceded before halftime.

It’s an all-or-nothing play. On review, I’m sure Michael Maguire will be saying to take his medicine against the man-on defence and play for the next tackle. I’m also sure he will be trying to strike the right balance between telling his fullback to pick his moments without putting him in his shell.

While Walsh got that intercept pass wrong, he can still use what he has previously put into the defence to his advantage. Like his own try, Walsh takes the ball out the back of a lead inside three on this one:

Valemei is in front of the line taking that faceball away from him, but with Walsh’s speed, he’s still able to create the short ball by attacking the inside shoulder of the centre.

Triangles are the most dangerous shape in rugby league, and with the lead inside three, while Valemei preempts the long pass, Zac Laybutt is left isolated in the line with Tom Dearden stuck on the lead.

You have to take the good with the bad when it comes to Walsh. He will win more games for a team than he will lose, and that is what makes him great.

Stats can be misleading in the NRL. I’ve covered how bad missed tackles are to measure defence in the past. Similarly, errors don’t paint a great picture around attack either. The noise around Walsh’s errors seems to have died down a little since Zac Lomax took over as the most error-prone player in the competition. He lacks the same scrutiny because his influence with the ball has been widely praised over the last 12 months. Meanwhile, any poor Walsh pass is closely followed by “see, he makes too many errors.”

With his knee out of the strapping and a pack getting forward in front of him, we’re starting to see the best of Walsh in 2025. As a result, we’re seeing the best of the Broncos as finals approach, and Adam Reynolds could yet make his return.

Whether they finish in the Top 4 or not, the Broncos are premiership contenders, and Walsh will be the player every opposition team spends the most time planning for in September.

Quick Play-the-Balls

We’re generating momentum through the middle of the article with a couple of quick carries.

More Marky Mark

If you need a laugh this week:

It comes a week after he laid on two of the most impressive try assists of the NRL season, and 24 hours before he did this on his way to scoring four:

But He Has Victor Radley To Thank…

While Mark Nawaqanitawase makes the headlines for his four tries, he has Victor Radley to thank for three of them.

Radley is developing into an elite line-runner since his move out to the edge. He’s running hard, genuine lines to create the space for Nawawanitawase to work his magic.

He starts wide on the first one before timing his swing back inside the centre to perfection.

In the following two, his line engages the three-man and triggers the jam from the two outside defenders.

First, he creates the triangle in the line as Cameron Munster steps back on the Radley line. In the second, he again starts wide to force a tackle from the three-man.

Try assists are another stat that don’t always paint a full picture in rugby league. Radley isn’t credited with anything on these plays, but the tries don’t happen without his involvement.

Setting Up For A Shot: Coaches Setting Up A Thursday Night Thriller

Teams play to points with the following tackle in mind. Here, I’m touching on something to watch next week as we try to keep ahead of things happening on the field.

Craig Bellamy likes to name a full-strength Melbourne Storm team in the last round of the regular season to have his best 17 firing for the finals. Meanwhile, a win all but guarantee’s the Brisbane Broncos a spot in the Top 4.

We’re in for a ripper on Thursday night based on what the coaches said following thier Round 26 matches.

After conceding 40 points in the second half last week, Bellamy squared up his playing group in the press conference and provided some insight into what we should be looking out for in this one:

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