New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nSince then, his superstardom has only exploded further with two superb performances for the Kangaroos.<\/p>\n
It is safe to say Walsh-mania has swept England, with the 23-year-old the talk of the town as he draws massive crowds.<\/p>\n
It is no surprise, given he is already one of rugby league\u2019s most marketable stars in its history, as seen with having more than $1 million followers on Instagram and TikTok combined.<\/p>\n
And it has Parker believing the allure of playing for the Wallabies and being showcased on the world stage regularly could tempt Walsh to leave the NRL.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy concern is that because he is of such a status and has such a cult following, he tries to go worldwide and bigger,\u201d Parker told AAP.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn rugby league, it\u2019s just harnessed here in Australia and in the north of England. If you look at rugby union for example, that is worldwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen anyone with that kind of following in it in my time. So it\u2019s whether he stays in the game for his whole entire career … I hope he does.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walsh only just signed a bumper five-year deal with the Broncos at the end of last year, keeping him contracted to Brisbane until the end of 2029.<\/p>\n
But Parker predicts he will be a global household name in the years to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually can\u2019t even forecast how big he is going to get,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re just looking purely at his talent, it\u2019s pretty obvious. But the status and the following and everything that goes with it is on a whole new level.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a fair bit to do with Reece and to watch him elevate himself in the grand final when Brisbane were under the pump and lost their No.6 and No.7.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s normally panic stations. But strangely enough, it was quite calm given the fact that Reece was doing what he was doing. He was terrific.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rugby union world is already talking about trying to poach Walsh as well, with Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh urged to splurge on Brisbane Broncos star.<\/p>\n
On the latest edition of The Good, The Bad and The Rugby ANZ podcast, former Wallaby Jeremy Paul called for Waugh to \u201copen the chequebook\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow electric, mate?\u201d Paul said to co-host Tim Bateman, a Kiwi former Super Rugby player, speaking about Walsh\u2019s performance in the first Ashes Test.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow fast was he on the weekend in the Ashes? Like, and just every time he touched it. Like, it\u2019s explosive.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026I reckon, Phil Waugh, open up that chequebook, bro.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cHe\u2019d put bums on seats anyway. Look at Suaalii.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally published as Reece Walsh linked with stunning code-switch amid warning NRL faces battle to hold onto game\u2019s biggest star<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Corey Parker has warned that the NRL could lose Reece Walsh to rugby union, with the Queensland rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-257272","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\/257272","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=257272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}