AJ Brimson wins England jersey over Man of Steel<\/a><\/p>\nWalters drawing from his own memories<\/p>\n
Walters was part of Australia\u2019s last great touring era, taking part in the 1990 and 1994 Kangaroos tours and the 1992 World Cup final at Wembley.<\/p>\n
He still vividly remembers those tours, including the moment he came off the bench in 1994 to help set up the winning try against Great Britain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were great times,\u201d Walters said. \u201cTouring and playing against the British – it\u2019s a great experience for any player. It\u2019s different to Origin, different to a grand final.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, as coach, Walters hopes to transfer that same sense of pride and purpose to a new generation of Kangaroos.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love telling stories as a coach,\u201d he said. \u201cFor me, coaching is storytelling – filling in the gaps for the players. But what\u2019s important is right now, this moment. They have to create their own part of that history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebuilding the Kangaroos\u2019 connection<\/p>\n
The upcoming three-Test series marks the first Ashes tour since 2003, ending a 22-year drought.<\/p>\n
Walters admits that gap has caused a \u201clost generation\u201d of players with no first-hand connection to Australia\u2019s historic rivalry with England.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been 20-odd years since a national tour, so we skipped a generation, unfortunately,\u201d Walters said. \u201cBut it\u2019s time to get back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not one current NRL player has ever faced England on British soil. Even Australia\u2019s most experienced campaigners – Isaah Yeo and Cameron Munster – have never played against them at all.<\/p>\n
That lack of direct experience makes Walters\u2019 storytelling approach even more important, helping his players understand what the Kangaroos jersey truly represents.<\/p>\n
\u2018Unfinished business\u2019 drives selection decisions<\/p>\n
Walters will also rely on players who\u2019ve expressed a deep emotional connection to the jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spoken to all three players, and certainly in Kotoni (Staggs) and Tino\u2019s (Fa\u2019asuamaleaui) case, they have unfinished business in the Australian jersey,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Australian Kangaroos are steeped deep in heritage. Those guys have a connection with the jersey. They have the opportunity to right a few wrongs.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a powerful message – one that aims to fuse history with hunger.<\/p>\n
Creating new memories<\/p>\n
For Walters, the task now is to inspire his players to leave their own mark on the Kangaroos\u2019 story, just as he once did three decades ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll look at the past,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it\u2019s important for them to build their own memories – strong memories and good memories – of pulling on that Kangaroos jumper.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Walters succeeds, this tour won\u2019t just revive the Ashes rivalry – it could rebuild the soul of Australian rugby league.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Walters is going back to where it all began. As Australia prepares to tour England for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-214205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214205","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=214205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}