Trent Robinson has dropped the biggest hint yet that Sam Walker will return for next week’s preliminary final showdown with the Dolphins, with the superstar halfback on track to play just four weeks after suffering a serious ankle injury.
Walker hasn’t played since the round 26 loss to the Dolphins on August 29 but is expected to be named for next Friday’s return bout in Queensland after the Roosters piled on the points to eliminate the Sharks with a 46-10 win at Allianz Stadium.
Daly Cherry-Evans was brilliant in the No.7 jersey but he’ll happily shift to five-eighth if Walker is cleared to return, with the Queensland halfback spotted kicking a soccer ball on Saturday night.
“Yeah, pretty confident from what we’ve seen,” Robinson said after the game.
“He hasn’t sort of trained with us yet, but he’s had really good progressions, and so we’ll get to Monday-Tuesday and we’ll get a good gauge on where he’s at when it comes to more uncontrolled footy stuff.”
Walker would be a huge inclusion for the Tricolours after Cherry-Evans bounced back from the pain of missing a field goal against Penrith last week to lead the team with a try and three assists.
“I know different people talk about amnesia and sporting players having it is pretty key, and you move on pretty quickly. And that’s what those guys do,” Robinson said.
“They know the game’s on the line, and then in the end, everyone’s telling you how you’re going to play, and this is going to happen, and that’s going to happen. In the end, 17 guys decide how the game’s going to go.
“Daly made a choice, and he absolutely nailed the halfback role for us tonight. There was great space created, and he made some really good choices on the end of the line about how to pass or kick that ball.”
While Cherry-Evans and James Tedesco did what they’ve been doing for years, young guns Robert Toia and Salesi Foketi are the trump cards that can take them all the way.
Foketi set the tone with a huge carry in their first set that led to a try, while Toia scored a try and had some huge carries to continue his dream run.
“He’s been pretty complete since he’s come into the game,” Robinson said of his strike centre.
“Everyone talks about doing your job, but you’ve got to do it with some intensity, and he had that whether it was a kick chase, whether it was a high-ball catch, whether it was his tackling, he was constant in that.
“Salesi Foketi also in the same way did his job well, but then when you have your moment, you’ve got to make it count, and Salesi did that as well.”
Originally published as ‘Pretty confident’: Sam Walker expected to be named for prelim final as DCE bounces back after rare miss