Aotearoa Warriors Diary: The Reece Walsh Chaos
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The last four weeks of Aotearoa Warriors footy have been a whirlwind and while it looked like a slightly easier patch of NRL footy earlier in the season, the rise of Manly Sea Eagles and a hearty North Queensland Cowboys team ensured that this was a tough run of games for the Mt Smarters. The Warriors conceded 30+ points in three games, conceding 20 vs Cowboys and at the same time there has been a wrinkle of encouragement in the Warriors performances.
The encouraging vibes mainly stem from Reece Walsh and despite not being able to fix things with a flick of his wrist like Albus Dumbledore, Walsh has been the focal point. None of this helps the whirlwind stuff though and the journey of trying to squeeze Walsh into the Warriors outfit has only amplified the whirlwind. Walsh is so skilled, so eager to be involved and impact games that his presence has felt a bit chaotic.
Again, that's only because Walsh is that good. This is not a plug and play scenario as Walsh takes touches, kicks, passes and attacking impetus away from the other play-makers who must then figure out how to best work with Walsh. This has been aided by Walsh being used in various roles by coach Nathan Brown with Walsh playing fullback and halves when starting, then coming off the bench in two games to do whatever.
Walsh played two games of Intrust Super Cup that were nicely split between his time at Brisbane Broncos and Warriors. First was a game at fullback for the Broncos aligned Norths Devils, then he appeared for Redcliffe Dolphins in the halves. Same situation when sliding back to 2019 when Walsh came off the bench for Queensland Under 18s and then lined up at fullback for Australian Schoolboys later that year.
Two major games in 2019 and two different positions.
Two reserve grade games in 2020 and two different clubs, two different positions.
That's where the chaotic vibe comes from and it is a process for coach Brown to embed Walsh into the Warriors. Walsh doesn't seem to care and his desperation to compete, contribute and play NRL footy is kinda refreshing. Now we have some clarity with the Warriors pointing to Roger Tuivasa-Sheck moving to wing in a more permanent shift, with Walsh given the fullback role.
David Fusitua has not played since round five and only played seven games last season.
Before getting into some nitty-gritty, we have to touch of Fusitua's absence and how that opens up Tuivasa-Sheck's move to wing. Regardless of Walsh's funk or anything else, if Fusitua and Ken Maumalo were both available along with the likes of Rocco Berry and Adam Pompey, this move would have been far more hectic. There appears to be some mystery around Fusitua's absence and his lack of footy is something small to keep an eye on.
I'd rather have Tuivasa-Sheck on the wing than Berry, Pompey or Edward Kosi. I love Tuivasa-Sheck and when he becomes a Blue, I'll be fascinated to see how he fits into the Blues backline and how he impacts Super Rugby. Right now, I'd rather have Walsh at fullback given the above framework and I reckon we should all be open minded about this.
Tuivasa-Sheck's excellence is built around his mana and running game. My love for Tuivasa-Sheck can't save me from pondering how three consecutive seasons avearging 200+ metres per game (this season and two prior) relates to win percentages of 40 or below. Tuivasa-Sheck's running excellence hasn't resulted in wins and while there is plenty of other factors involved, I'm merely pondering whether that type of fullback is conjusive to winning games right now.
Tuivasa-Sheck's highest win percentage with Warriors was 57 percent in 2018 and that's when he averaged 178m per game. As bonkers as Tuivasa-Sheck is running the footy, that feels better suited to playing wing where he can attack a scattered line and does have to buzz about other fullback duties. Other fullback duties that Walsh can do with class.
Here's how Walsh and Tuivasa-Sheck stack up in some play-making stats and remember that Walsh has played four games (80mins in just two)...
Walsh: 2 tries - 4 try assists - 5 linebreaks - 93m/game - 184.55 kicking metres/game.
Tuivasa-Sheck: 2 tries - 4 try assists - 7 linebreaks - 221m/game - 4.46 kicking metres/game.
Walsh doesn't do the same mahi that Tuivasa-Sheck does, although he has the same amount of tries and try assists in at least half the footy Tuivasa-Sheck has played. Most of Walsh's try assists have come on the left edge and while there are some trends (great catch and pass, skip pass, hot stepping), the variety below is a nice sign of Walsh's willingness...
Walsh also has a monster of a left boot and rugby union folks will be interested to know that Tuivasa-Sheck hasn't developed much of a kicking game. Tuivasa-Sheck has not averaged more than 15 kicking metres per game in any of his 10 seasons and Walsh is averaging 184.55m per kick in his four games. The best comparison for Walsh may be Ponga - not only in ginger/strawberry-blondish maori swag but also their lefty styles...
Ponga: 4 tries - 4 ta - 4 lb - 152m - 56.10km
That's from Ponga's five games this year and general footy fans will be interested to note that this is hefty dip from last year's work: 10 tries - 14 ta - 12 lb - 184m - 84.11km.
Ponga's kicking metres and run metres are well down on last year while he's got similar try involvement stuff. Warriors fans should also tap into Newcastle Knights business as the Warriors have done well to rid themselves of deregistered player agent Isaac Moses (took over Warriors via his clients) and while unable to have 'clients' right now, Moses' agency looks after various Knights players and staff - Blake Green lol.
Back on topic and Walsh has a serious case for him offering more at fullback than Tuivasa-Sheck. There was a bit of fullback chaos as soon as Walsh was signed with Hayze Perham quickly shuffled on to Parramatta Eels where he has played fullback in reserve grade, plus all signs point to Paul Turner moving to Gold Coast Titans where his brother Lee plays for Tweed Heads and a couple NZRL junior coaches have moved into the Titans staff (Junior Kiwis coach Ezra Howe is Titans recruitment manager).
Both Perham and Turner would have at least thought they would get a sniff of stepping in at fullback. Warriors sign Walsh and he already looks like a better fullback than those two could be, then Perham and Turner leave. There is some fullback depth coming through the Warriors as well with Otahuhu Leopards junior William Fakatoumafi part of the Warriors Aihe crew playing fullback in the Redcliffe Dolphins Under 21s team. Deeper than that, Ali Leaiataua played fullback for the Warriors SG Ball Under 18 team early last year and started this year playing in one of the Auckland Under 20s teams before moving back to Kings College 1st 15.
As soon as Walsh signed with Warriors there was chaos. Perham and Turner were casualties, Walsh has been deployed in different roles nearly every game he's played this year (ISC and NRL) and now Tuivasa-Sheck looks set for steady shift to wing. Ol' mate from Game of Thrones said 'chaos is a ladder' and right now it feels like the Warriors are in the midst of sussing out this ladder, so don't go making any grand judgements about the 2021 Warriors just yet.
Auckland Blues fans: watch Tuivasa-Sheck on the wing closely as I'm fairly confident this is the type of role he will play in rugby union.
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