‘I want to be a winner’: Where Walsh stands among Clive Churchill Medal champions

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Between his match-winning tackles, powerful solo try and crisp cutout passes, Reece Walsh might have just delivered the most emphatic grand final performance in NRL history.

This was the Brisbane superstar’s moment – one to announce himself as a player made for the game’s greatest stage, and silence his critics.

From a statistical standpoint, perhaps only Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary can rival the Broncos fullback with his 2023 grand final exploits.

That night, Cleary masterminded a 16-point comeback in 18 minutes to break Brisbane hearts.

On Sunday night, Walsh did it all to clinch a 26-22 triumph over the Melbourne Storm.

He laid on Deine Mariner’s first try, and later jumped it at first receiver to charge through five defenders and score.

Those highlights, and his clutch try-saving tackle on Storm prop Tui Kamikamica while he was over the line, kept the Broncos close at 22-12 down.

Michael Maguire and Reece Walsh celebrate the 2025 premiership.

Close was all they needed to be, as Walsh set up two more tries for Gehamat Shibasaki and Mariner again, while twice he prevented his Melbourne counterpart Ryan Papenhuyzen from scoring.

Walsh did all that with halfback and skipper Adam Reynolds forced off with a leg injury, with more than half an hour on the clock. Josiah Karapani and Ben Hunt would both join their captain on the sidelines for HIAs inside the final 15 minutes.

Walsh’s heroics put him among other players whose memorable performances earned them the Clive Churchill Medal.

Sam Burgess’ efforts to fight through a fractured cheekbone suffered in the opening minute of South Sydney’s breaking of a 43-year premiership drought is another standout.

But for Broncos coach Michael Maguire, who led the Rabbitohs on that day in 2014, Walsh’s endeavours will go down in history.

“[Walsh is] definitely up there,” Maguire said, when asked if he had just witnessed the best individual performance in an NRL grand final.

“He doesn’t like me putting attention on him, but he was outstanding. Reecey loves to find moments, but the fact is he’s a real team man.

“To watch him grow into his position, and he’s had to work hard on his game … he’s the last one off the field every day.

“We stand out there together and talk about lots of things, but a lot of it is about how he wants to get better at his game.”

This was a group who needed to discover resilience throughout 2025, with Maguire injecting a hard edge and disciplined mentality that was not always well received.

It led to media backlash, with pundits suggesting he had trained the Broncos too hard, and they were fatiguing and not clicking as a result.

But Walsh never backed down from Maguire’s standards. One moment in the preseason summed that up.

As the squad ran an intensive opposed session, Walsh went up to defuse a bomb on his own try line. Train-and-triallist Glen Vaihu went up to compete, and the pair clashed in the air – the rings of the collision echoing around Broncos’ HQ.

Walsh immediately jumped to his feet unfazed and played the ball. It was one of the earliest signs he was made for the Maguire regime.

When he was forced to the sidelines with a knee injury for six weeks, he took time away from rugby league to assess his craft.

That reflection triggered a breakthrough, his 11 tries and 21 try assists in 13 games making him the linchpin of Maguire’s plans.

“A lot of people have their opinions outside the club, but Madge’s passion and him sticking up for us through the year when we were getting rinsed through the media, the way we go about things, the care he has for us, no one knows outside the club,” Walsh said.

“We definitely know inside the club the way he looks after us as people. He demands a lot, but we just won a comp.

“He should demand a lot. He’s a bloody winner, and I want to be a winner.”

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