![\"Reece](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2ef07d6cc2d583a850ba106ca313c73a4d5ed22e.jpeg\")
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Reece Walsh basks in grand final glory.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that\u2019s not playing smart, that\u2019s playing hard \u2026 You can\u2019t fire the physical shots and then expect to emotionally make the right decisions all the time; you have to find that balance and control your energy through not only that game but an entire finals series and an entire year.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to accept that there are ups and downs, ebbs and flow, stellar performances and sub-par performances. That\u2019s OK. No athlete in any sport maintains absolute perfection in those games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he produced on the weekend was the product of everything we\u2019ve done this year.<\/p>\n
\u201c[They are] his learnings, and you need to have the energy at the time to pull it out when you need it. He\u2019s become a smart player because he knows himself now.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s learnt himself. That\u2019s like your physical skills \u2013 it takes a lot of work and he\u2019s done the work.\u201c<\/p>\n
Louder believes Walsh has found the balance of knowing when to go for a big play, as well as being able to flush an error if it doesn\u2019t come off.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to understand the error. Is it technical, tactical, psychological, environmental \u2013 is it emotional?\u201d Louder said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you understand it, you know what to do with it. If you don\u2019t understand it, you become reactive instead of responsive \u2026 That\u2019s a real skill.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got it and wants to understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Most](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/204896a13775c1d5110dbd32df479e689535ddeb.jpeg\")
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Most critics gave Reece Walsh a 10\/10 for his grand final performance.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n
A case in point was Brisbane\u2019s opening finals clash against Canberra. Walsh appeared to lose control after headbutting Hudson Young, an action that earned him a trip to the sin-bin, and then gave Raiders fans the bird as he went up the tunnel.<\/p>\n
When Walsh re-emerged, with the game on the line, he produced one of the greatest sequences of finals football ever seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to recognise what you can get out of the moment, rather than judge the moment,\u201d Louder said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I try to teach athletes: what is this moment?<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can have an emotional reaction and be \u2018I don\u2019t want to be in the bin\u2019, or you can understand why you are there and what you can do with this.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s taken away 10 minutes on the field, but what else has it given me?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the maturity as players start to get older; you talk about managing the moments. It\u2019s not just a saying, it\u2019s an understanding. With talent comes responsibility, and you have to understand exactly all components of responsibility. It takes time, growth and maturity to do the hard yards and self-reflect and be vulnerable \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cThe skill is about recognising when to pull the trigger, knowing where the game is at.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of footy IQ that goes into the timing of those decisions and moments. He\u2019s a competitor and wants to compete: knowing when and how to compete is a skill. That\u2019s what he\u2019s learning now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walsh is the hottest player in the NRL, and his grand final heroics have earned him a spot in Australia\u2019s squad for the upcoming Ashes tour of England. However, Louder believes his best is yet to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year was probably our best in terms of real progress, but he\u2019s got more growth. That\u2019s exciting and probably scary for the opposition,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re only two-and-a-half years in for him and I. Our real strength is going to be next year and the year after.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what excites me about what I saw on Sunday, that\u2019s the complete output of all that work together. Now, how do we get closer to that more often?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s exciting and scary \u2026 He wants more. I know that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a bit of off-time now to recharge, because we\u2019re going again. We\u2019re going bigger, more detailed, more in-depth. There\u2019s no ceiling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat excites me and excites him too. He\u2019s 23 \u2026 He\u2019s going to want to get better again. He\u2019s going to want to produce that as often as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reece Walsh basks in grand final glory.Credit: Getty Images \u201cBut that\u2019s not playing smart, that\u2019s playing hard \u2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-195940","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\/195940","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=195940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}