Walsh opens up on 'rusty' return

As the man himself comes over. Hello Reece, welcome. Welcome back to the NRL, mate. Congratulations on the win tonight. To celebrate with little Layla as well out here on the pitch too. He’s cruising around, mate. He loves it and loving life, mate. Surprised you had came back so early. How did it feel to be out there tonight in front of almost 50,000? Yeah mate, it was awesome. You know, it’s always had the plan to come back a little bit early. I know I’ve done the same thing last year and I just had out a few weeks, but it was a bit rusty out there tonight and but I’m just happy we got the result down. The boys, you know, stuck in their dug dates. You were telling me that you’re just tougher than everyone else before you come back early. You you’re trying to check it out in this one game on yours. So, no, it’s about 6:00. What is it about? The Dolphins. Obviously the Broncos have never lost to the Dolphins. 3 from three. Now, how important is it to keep that record intact here in Brisbane? Yeah, mate, it is important. You know Wayne’s team, you know they’re one of the ones that you know, just keep fighting all the way to the end and it’s good just to get out there, get a win and keep building. Jock Madden is good for you tonight. What’s the talk like around the rock, getting the boys to the points? Yeah, it’s good. You know Jock is still building and you know he’s out there giving his best each week and and I’m really proud of him. He’s doing his job when Renault’s away. You know, he played really good tonight and got us around the field. Reece, you obviously have so many opportunities in the game and you see so much. How? How is it for you to try and build that balance in your game, to to try and keep your your errors down to a minimum but also still be that excitement for your team? And just picking my moments, you know, and identifying when you know when there’s time for me to hold the ball and offload. I think too many times I was trying to push the pass and make that play tonight, so we just got to keep building on it, identifying it and you know, it’s still my best to get better each week. We played with the headgear tonight for the first time. How was that? Hey, it was annoying, mate. Who said it? It was annoying mate. But you know, Luke was into me. If you want to come back early, you got to wear the headgear. So I just thought I’d, you know, keep it on tonight and, you know, tick that box. I don’t think we’ll be seeing it next week. Did it did it take a bit to get the special protection. This is, this is from last year. So I already had this made-up and I’ve done the same thing in that, the trial last year. So we already had it ready to go. And you know, yeah, worth the treatment, right. A little. Laila looking after you too, mate. Mate, she is. She keeps you on my toes. She’s with big Patty. So where’s she going? You know the boys look after her and she enjoys it. So I just need to do it. She’s got the pace like that too. What about Uncle Paddy like that? No, no one in your team took more hit UPS. No one made more tackles. He played 80 minutes. What’s the appreciation within the Broncos and and the team for Paddy Kerrigan? Oh mate, it’s massive, you know, Not even tonight, not just tonight, but the previous weeks when you know Paddy’s playing 80 minutes in the middle, giving his all, you know, really directness around the field, it shows that the the character, he is the person, you know, the leader he is. And you know, I’m just really proud of him, mate. You know, he’s he’s out there giving his best each week and he’s doing it consistently, really well. So yeah, he was very close at half time. What did the coach have to say to us? Yeah, he just wanted us to go out there, keep playing our footy, but you know, earn that win, you know, earn the right to to play with the footy. And you know, I feel like we did that as he stepped up, make some, made some good plays, He’s putting himself in position to make plays. So, you know, it was a scrappy one, but we got it done.