Brisbane Broncos coach Kevin Walters has laid into the NRL after the club confirmed superstar fullback Reece Walsh has suffered a facial fracture in a further blow to last year’s grand finalists.
Walsh was on the wrong end of a sickening head clash with Taylan May in the opening minutes of the loss to the Panthers and was left with a nasty gash underneath his left eye.
Although he passed his HIA, Walsh struggled to see out of the eye and was eventually ruled of the contest while May was penalised for the incident and also placed on report.
On Friday, however, it was revealed the NRL’s match review panel had not charged May over the incident.
On Friday the Broncos issued a statement confirming the injury news, and revealing Walsh was unable to fly and was making the near-1000km journey back to Brisbane by car.
“Reece was taken to hospital last night after we arrived back at the team hotel and underwent a CT scan which showed a facial fracture,” Broncos Head Of Performance Dave Ballard said
“As a result, he cannot fly home and is being driven back up to Brisbane today by our staff.
“We will be able to determine how much footy Reece will miss once the injury settles down and after we consult a specialist in coming days.”
But Walters was furious that May escaped punishment for the shot that could sideline Walsh for up to six weeks, saying he was concerned that rival teams could target the young gun in similar fashion in the future.
“It’s disappointing, I’m a bit confused about the rules with the duty of care for our players,” Walters said on Monday.
“Reece is going to miss four to six weeks.
“There was contact to the head which is duty of care.
“If the NRL is serious about concussions and protecting players, where does this sit with that?
“If this is let go, the next time Reece Walsh comes back on the field, what are they going to do again, exactly the same thing … ‘Sorry’.
“It was contact to the head, mate.
“Something should have happened (to May) shouldn’t it?
“We now have Reece Walsh gone for six weeks.”
Walters also promised to take the matter to NRL football boss Graham Annesley, saying “duty of care must be first and foremost”.
“I will speak to the right people,” he added.
“There’s a few things I’m not happy about last night, but we will speak through the right channels and go from there.
“If I speak publicly about it, it looks like I’m a sore loser which I’m certainly not, but what I am strong on is the protection of our players.
“I think our administrators have been really good, but the duty of care must be first and foremost.
“I have my opinions and the NRL won’t bother too much about what I think, it’s what they think.”
It’s a further blow to the Broncos who will be without Payne Haas for up to six weeks following knee surgery and were without halfback Adam Reynolds.
It comes as Broncos coach Kevin Walters conceded he made a mistake by not having an outside back on his bench again after Walsh’s blow forced a reshuffle at the back.
Given Walsh wasn’t ruled out due to an HIA, it meant Walters could not activate Tristan Sailor — son of Wendell — as the 18th man, leaving him with an interchange devoid of outside backs to properly replace the speedster.
The Broncos boss could only turn to Tyson Smoothy, Kobe Hetherington, Marty Taupau or Xavier Willison, forcing him to plug square pegs into round holes at the back.
Walters could only put his hands up and admit he got it wrong when it came to naming Sailor as his 18th man and revealed he and his coaching staff would ensure more players are drilled to become comfortable playing as an outside back.
“We’ve got Tristan Sailor parked there as 18th man but he can’t come into the game, so we won’t be doing that again,” Walters said in his post-match press conference.
“Well, we have to (have him on our bench), because if you lose some of those outside backs, it’s a specialist position, fullback.
“Anyway, I’m not blaming that, we just didn’t handle the situation well. All clubs face it at different times and that’s probably the first time this group have had to face it.
“We’ll be better too as coaches to make sure we get more training in that position where he’s (Walsh) not there.”
When quizzed on whether the NRL should alter the rules to bring in the 18th man if a player is ruled out to do an incident that stemmed from a penalty, Walters could only joke about the situation.
“Well if you’re Ivan Cleary, you probably don’t want to tinker with it,” Walters said.
“The game’s been around for a long time. We’ve just got to be better there.
“Me, as a coach, I’ve got to pick the right people on the bench to make sure we have good access to cover everything, so I take a bit of the blame there.”
