How Walsh covered up for haunted Hunt; Broncos star on notice<\/a><\/p>\nBroncos out for revenge in prelim | 01:40<\/p>\n
HOW CLEARY CAN EXPOSE WALSH<\/p>\n
All Broncos players will have their hands full with Cleary, who tore their team to shreds earlier in the season at Magic Round and of course, during the glittering 20-minute period in the 2023 decider.<\/p>\n
But it will be Walsh, as the fullback, who will have to deal with Cleary\u2019s world class kicking game. <\/p>\n
Premiership winning halfback Cooper Cronk says that battle will prove to be the most important. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just going to break it down as Cleary vs. Reece Walsh. Two of the most influential players in our competition. If they put on an absolute clinic on Sunday for their teams, we\u2019re going to be loving what happens on Sunday afternoon,\u201d Cronk said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of other players that come into this, but I think the matchup between those two is pretty key.<\/p>\n
\u201cReece Walsh can be found out on the last play and found out of position with kicks or running the ball and I know that Nathan will be doing his homework and will come out with a play to find Reece out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foxsports.com.au\u2019s Paul Crawley also believes the Broncos fullback can be caught out of position, and Cleary will be thinking of ways to capitalise if Walsh is a step behind. <\/p>\n
\u201cWho wins this battle? Is it the conductor or is it the magician?\u201d Crawley said on NRL360.<\/p>\n
\u201cCleary will pick Walsh apart in areas that won\u2019t get the same focus. Walsh is so brilliant with the ball, but sometimes can be a little but lazy in defence and his positional play. <\/p>\n
\u201cCleary\u2019s kicking game is going to put pressure on Walsh more than anything else and that\u2019s where Reece Walsh at times needs to be on his guard,\u201d NRL360 co-host Gorden Tallis added.<\/p>\n
Ex-Broncos coach Kevin Walters says Walsh\u2019s defence and defensive positioning has improved significantly since the 2023 grand final loss. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s obviously really important to the outcome of the game,\u201d Walters told foxsports.com.au.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always an ongoing improvement for fullbacks and Dylan Edwards is no different. He\u2019s always looking to improve, particularly their defence, because both he and Walsh the key to both teams\u2019 defence. <\/p>\n
\u201cReece has been improving over the last two or three years with his defence. He\u2019s put a lot more time and focus on it in the last two or three years, so we\u2019ve seen the improvements from him in that space. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll have to be very good because Cleary is quite a sharp brain with his short kicking game as well as his long kicking game. So, yeah, it\u2019ll be a great contest between those two, the minds in particular\u201d.<\/p>\n
While there\u2019s not much he can wrong at the moment, there are deficiencies that Cleary will be hoping to exploit. <\/p>\n
As recent as the Broncos\u2019 Round 26 win over the Cowboys in Townsville, Crawley noted a couple of instances in defence that Walsh would like to have back. <\/p>\n
Moments where Walsh stopped in his tracks to watch the play develop as the Cowboys attacked the Broncos\u2019 line or when the fullback didn\u2019t run as hard as he should\u2019ve to follow the play.<\/p>\n
Against Penrith in a final, these are errors that simply can\u2019t be replicated.<\/p>\n
Vision of Reece Walsh labouring in defence.Source: FOX SPORTSNathan Cleary will be looking to catch Walsh napping like he was in this instance against the Cowboys, who scored on this play with a grubber kick behind the line.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t having a crack at Reece but there are parts of his defensive game this season. You watch this, the Cowboys put a kick in and he\u2019s still standing on the other side of the field. If that\u2019s James Tedesco, he\u2019s going a million miles an hour,\u201d Crawley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a few moments in that game. If I\u2019m seeing them I reckon Nathan Cleary will be seeing them.\u201d<\/p>\n
HOW WALSH, BRONCOS CAN ATTACK CLEARY<\/p>\n
Understandably, the Panthers\u2019 left edge defence has come under fire this week after a disappointing display against the Bulldogs, which saw Jacob Preston and Bronson Xerri run roughshod.<\/p>\n
The Broncos have already identified it as a weakness, with strike centre Kotoni Staggs warning they\u2019ll target that side. <\/p>\n
Cleary defends on the right, so he might not cop as many attacking raids as halves partner Blaize Talagi does, but recent history has shown that Brisbane have had a bit of success targeting Cleary in defence. <\/p>\n
For all his strengths, and tackling can be one of them, Brisbane might rate themselves a good chance of making some inroads down the right side of Penrith\u2019s defence as well.<\/p>\n
Cooper Cronk noted that Cleary was found out at times in the 2023 decider, which led to a couple of Ezra Mam tries.<\/p>\n
Firstly, Cleary missed Mam cold when the Broncos playmaker sliced through for this second try of the night. <\/p>\n
Ezra Mam breaking the tackle of Nathan Cleary en route to his second try in the 2023 grand final.Source: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
Minutes later, it was Walsh who left Cleary gasping at air, with the fullback making a break midfield before finding Mam who finished the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go back to the 2023 grand final, if there\u2019s one guy who that caused Nathan heartache defensively, it\u2019s the speed and footwork of Reece Walsh,\u201d Cronk said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he (Walsh) gets the ball a couple of passes wide like he\u2019s been doing, I think Reece can carve up the Penrith Panthers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a game of chess. Reece needs to be in every position on the fifth play and if I\u2019m Nathan, I\u2019m going to try and wedge outside in defensively and not let the ball get to Walsh.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cleary missed five tackles that night. Of course, his poor defensive display ended up adding to his legend, with the halfback producing an otherworldly final 20 minutes to lift Penrith back from the dead. <\/p>\n
VERDICT<\/p>\n
This game is almost too tight to call. <\/p>\n
If Walsh produces his best form, it\u2019ll almost guarantee a Broncos win, but there\u2019s no better team in Australian sports that quells the best strength of an opponent like the Penrith Panthers. <\/p>\n
As journalist Dean Ritchie opined, the big-game experience of Cleary and the Panthers might be too much for a talented but sometimes erratic Broncos outfit. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re going to pit the two stars against each other, I know whose game I\u2019d like to be backing under pressure,\u201d Ritchie said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNathan in the finals is irresistible while I think Reece Walsh can be temperamental. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure they\u2019ll sledge him, they\u2019ll be up in his grill because they know if he is temperamental than he can unravel where the Iceman (Cleary) will never, ever unravel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Broncos v Panthers in a Sunday afternoon prelim final at a raucous Suncorp Stadium. Rugby league doesn\u2019t get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[110797,110803,64,63,107830,110795,4428,82632,110801,110796,11101,110804,11096,28814,11100,4591,110798,21683,30193,11288,60462,104528,95925,27156,5098,4592,4415,3194,4744,761,762,158,11396,4598,71040,13391,107829,159,85,110794,32278,110799,110802,110800,107833],"class_list":["post-169380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-afternoon-prelim","tag-all-time-finals-games","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blockbuster-preliminary-final","tag-break-midfield","tag-brisbane-broncos","tag-broncos-v","tag-class-kicking-game","tag-conductor-v","tag-cooper-cronk","tag-damning-vision","tag-daniel-nuttall","tag-dean-ritchie","tag-defensive-display","tag-dylan-edwards","tag-edge-defence","tag-ezra-mam","tag-gorden-tallis","tag-grand-final","tag-grand-final-loss","tag-grand-final-qualifier","tag-grubber-kick","tag-halves-partner","tag-ivan-cleary","tag-jacob-preston","tag-james-tedesco","tag-kevin-walters","tag-kicking-game","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-paul-crawley","tag-penrith-panthers","tag-prelim-final","tag-reece-walsh","tag-reynolds","tag-rugby-league","tag-sports","tag-superstar-battle","tag-superstar-duo","tag-wedge-outside","tag-world-class","tag-world-class-kicking","tag-world-class-player"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169380","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=169380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}