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\n Reece Walsh and Ben Hunt have been combining well in the spine.
\n \u00a9Grant Trouville \/ NRL Images
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Reece Walsh has seen all the stats, but is more focused on the bigger picture when it comes to beating the Panthers for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n
Walsh has been bested by Nathan Cleary and his men in his past seven outings against them, most notably in the 2023 grand final, where the Penrith\u2019s star half stole the 26-24 win for his side with 18 minutes of pure football.<\/p>\n
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Panthers v Broncos \u2013 Grand Final, 2023<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get to go to the grand final if we win; I feel like that if that is not driving you, I shouldn’t be standing (here),\u201d Walsh said when asked if it was a personal goal to defeat the Panthers for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s just another game of footy for me. I am going to deal with it like any other week and try and prepare my best and do my job.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can’t wait (to be playing in another final).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe set our goal at the start of the year, went through a tough pre-season and a tough year and now to be back I am\u00a0excited and grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n
A sun-drenched, sold-out Suncorp Stadium awaits the two teams who come into the decisive match off the back of two eye-catching performances, orchestrated by their brightest stars in Walsh and Cleary.<\/p>\n
Walsh admitted his opponents were \u201cworld class\u201d, but was excited, rather than anxious, to face off against them for their opportunity to return to the grand final stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you been watching the footy the last few weeks? They are world class and have shown why they have won it the past four years,\u201d Walsh said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey play the long game and that is something we are trying to get to.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is an awesome challenge for us this weekend and really\u00a0exciting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love playing against the best teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked how the side would look to deal with the threat posed by Cleary, Walsh was at his confident best, asking \u201chow does he deal with us?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNah, it’s\u00a0exciting. He is a world class player and if you give him opportunity he is going to take it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the same as us. If they give us opportunity, we are going to take it.<\/p>\n
\u201c(To shut down Cleary) I guess it is trying to minimise those (opportunities).\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n Reece Walsh and Ben Hunt have been combining well in the spine.
\n \u00a9Grant Trouville \/ NRL Images
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For this game, the Broncos have received a boost, with the return from a hamstring injury of skipper Adam Reynolds in the halves offsetting the loss of the in-form Billy Walters, who suffered an ACL injury.<\/p>\n
Livewire Ezra Mam, who scored a hat-trick in the 2023 grand final loss, is also back from a hamstring injury and will come off the bench, adding another dimension to their attack that has been led in recent weeks by the form of Walsh.<\/p>\n
Hunt has repeatedly said his role in the spine \u2013 be it at hooker or halfback \u2013 was to help get the ball to the Origin representative to do his thing and said nothing would change this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust keep it simple, get the ball to him when he wants it and really steer our forwards around,\u201d Hunt said.<\/p>\n
\u201cReece is putting himself into the right positions and calling for the ball when he needs it so I don’t have to overthink it too much, (it is) just get it there.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Reynolds: \u201cI was always determined to get back”<\/p>\n
The returning Reynolds said he also would look to give his fullback the freedom to play what he sees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love what Reece is doing, he can do whatever he wants to do,\u201d Reynolds said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am there to guide the boys around the park and if Walshy sees an opportunity, I am all for Walshy to get the ball and have that opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have never been one to shy away from getting Reece the ball \u2026 Not much will change.<\/p>\n
\u201cWalshy has been playing fantastic football and is a big part of the reason we are in this situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will be trying to get him as much ball as possible and if he sees an opportunity, it\u2019s open for him to take it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reece Walsh has seen all the stats, but is more focused on the bigger picture when it comes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-164261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}