Bluster, brilliance and a headbutt: Inside story of Walsh’s match-winning madness

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An hour after the madness that was, Reece Walsh has a wobble in his voice and a glint in his eye.

He is literally underground in the bowels of GIO Stadium. He’s headbutted Hudson Young. Flipped off the Canberra masses on his way from the field. Then turned around and broken 25,523 lime green hearts with one of the finest individual performances in recent memory.

You do a double take when Broncos coach Michael Maguire praises Walsh’s maturity. He has just headbutted Hudson Young and flipped the crowd off.

Yet in the wake of Brisbane’s 94-minute, 29-28 triumph over Canberra, Walsh is on the phone to his four-year-old daughter Leila - hence the wobble in his voice and glint in his eye.

Maturity comes in many shapes, especially when it comes to Walsh - the 23-year-old superstar able to light up a footy field and the news cycle look no other.

His 53rd minute clash with Young for instance, where he turned and launched at the Raiders jaw with what proved to be a glancing blow.

Reece Walsh slumps to the ground after Brisbane’s epic win.

The one-man, seven-minute blitz afterwards - when he scored one try, set up another and booted a booming 40-20 to drag Brisbane back into a contest they should have lost two times over.

And back in the bowels of GIO Stadium, the frank conversation he and skipper Pat Carrigan worked through while the Raiders ran away to a 28-12 lead.

“Patty looked me in the eye, and he told me ‘f— it, don’t worry about what happened, go out there and play footy, go out there and play your game,” Walsh told this masthead.

“I can’t tell you how much that impacted me because Patty, he’s like an older brother for me. I thrive when people are backing me and supporting me. That was just the perfect thing for him to say and I then just went out there and did my job to repay my teammates.”

Just as you double take when Maguire lauds Walsh’s maturity, you stop when the man of the moment shrugs and offers a summation of his match-winning blitz.

“It wasn’t anything special mate, that’s just how I play rugby league. To be honest I should’ve bloody done that from the first whistle.”

Walsh isn’t wrong. That is definitely how he plays the game. Brilliance. Bluster. Speed. Sledging. And unfortunately, headbutting.

The Match Review Committee will decide his finals fate on Monday morning. If his contact on Young is deemed grade 1 striking, Walsh will be free to play with a fine.

A grade 2 verdict will have him facing two games out, even with an early guilty plea. Same story if dangerous contact is the ruling - grade 2, he’s in trouble, grade 1, play on. A contrary conduct charge for flipping off the crowd won’t count as a prior offence regarding the charges from the same game.

A Broncos staffer cuts Walsh off when you ask if he feels he did genuinely headbutt Young.

“I hope not,” is all he can say on the prospect of suspension ruling him out of a preliminary or grand final.

As for tangling with Young, he’s far more forthcoming. The glint is back in those bright green eyes.

In a live cross with Fox Sports’ Matty Johns Show, he joked that Young had branded him a “weak-gutted dog”.

“Nah nothing too much was really said,” he grins in the sheds.

“It was just two passionate footballers going at it and I actually loved that.

“(Raiders players) were giving it to me all night, so that’s rugby league. I love it. It might look a certain way, but I love that rough and tough shit.

“I thrive off it. I try to anyway.”

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