{"id":225226,"date":"2025-10-19T13:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T13:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/225226\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T13:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T13:47:12","slug":"nrl-news-2025-kangaroos-fullback-selection-reece-walsh-dylan-edwards-andrew-johns-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/225226\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2025 | Kangaroos fullback selection, Reece Walsh, Dylan Edwards; Andrew Johns comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reece Walsh<\/a> appears to have won the race for the Kangaroos<\/a> fullback spot, with selector Andrew Johns describing it as a “no brainer” decision.<\/p>\n

Walsh is in contention with the incumbent Dylan Edwards, but his Clive Churchill medal performance in the grand final has put him in front.<\/p>\n

Nine’s Danny Weidler revealed on 9News Sydney that Walsh has likely won the spot, and will be joined in the backline by Gehamat Shibasaki, Kotoni Staggs, Josh Addo-Carr and Mark Nawaqanitawase.<\/p>\n

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Nathan Cleary and Cameron Munster will be the halves, leaving Tom Dearden, Mitchell Moses and Ethan Strange on the outer. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Reece Walsh in the Kangaroos huddle.\u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n

Prior to the Pacific Championships match between Samoa and New Zealand<\/a>, Billy Slater described the fullback dilemma as a difficult call.<\/p>\n

“I think that’s the toughest decision for Kevin Walters, and to be honest I think he’ll go with Reece Walsh … the English will absolutely love him, they’ll love the way he plays and his charisma,” he said on Nine’s coverage.<\/p>\n

However, selector Johns was more bullish about it. <\/p>\n

“For me it’s a no brainer, he just picks himself and what’s important when you go on tour is players playing in the semi finals,” he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mark Nawaqanitawase and Reece Walsh. \u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n

Johns is a selector alongside coach Kevin Walters, Boyd Cordner, Darren Lockyer, Cameron Smith and ARLC chairman Peter V’landys.<\/p>\n

The rugby league Immortal also predicted Bradman Best’s lack of football will see him miss out on the first Test at Wembley, with Shibasaki and Staggs in the centres.<\/p>\n

He also had Cleary and Munster in the halves and Harry Grant at hooker over Blayke Brailey. <\/p>\n

In the forwards, he predicted Patrick Carrigan, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, Isaah Yeo, Angus Crichton and Jacob Preston.<\/p>\n

The only decision where Johns and Slater differed was the bench.<\/p>\n

Both men picked Lindsay Collins, Hudson Young and Tom Dearden. Johns had Lindsay Smith while Slater felt Reuben Cotter will get the nod. <\/p>\n

The first Test will be played on October 26 at 12:30am (AEDT).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reece Walsh appears to have won the race for the Kangaroos fullback spot, with selector Andrew Johns describing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-225226","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\/225226","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=225226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}