{"id":712443,"date":"2026-06-03T11:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T11:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/712443\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T11:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T11:17:18","slug":"state-of-origin-2026-reece-walsh-tipped-to-earn-recall-for-maroons-reasons-why-walsh-needs-to-be-picked-for-game-ii-nrl360-news-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/712443\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin 2026: Reece Walsh tipped to earn recall for Maroons, reasons why Walsh needs to be picked for Game II, NRL360, news, reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reece Walsh isn\u2019t expected to win the Queensland No. 1 jersey for Game II, but to save the series, do the Maroons \u201cneed\u201d to pick the electric fullback?<\/p>\n

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Walsh was left out altogether by Billy Slater in the opener and the Broncos star admitted on Wednesday that his form wasn\u2019t where it needs to be<\/a> to warrant selection in Game I. He\u2019ll get a golden chance to win a jersey for Game II when Brisbane face the Gold Coast on Saturday night before teams are picked on Monday.<\/p>\n

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Broncos teammates Gehamat Shibasaki and Ezra Mam were named on Queensland\u2019s six-man bench for Game I, but neither played.<\/p>\n

Shibasaki won\u2019t be considered as he\u2019s due to spend five to six weeks on the sideline with an injury while Mam has been dropped to the pine for the Titans clash, leaving his Maroons spot in major doubt.<\/p>\n

Walsh hasn\u2019t set the world on fire this season but everyone in rugby league would agree that on best form, he\u2019d be one of the first picked for Queensland.<\/p>\n

Kalyn Ponga is all but certain to wear the No. 1 after his outstanding performance in the opener but according to The Daily Telegraph\u2019s Michael Carayannis, the fullback simply can\u2019t be ignored.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Queensland need him. Not just the Broncos, but the Maroons as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe should have been on the bench in Game I, and now that Shibasaki is injured, there\u2019s no reason not to play him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carayannis believes that Queensland really could have used Walsh to put the game to bed.<\/p>\n

They led 20-6 but the game developed into a bit of a stalemate in the second half until Ponga was sent off in the 57th minute, which opened the door for the Blues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a moment in the second half before Kalyn Ponga got sent off where the Maroons looked like they were going through the motions. They needed an injection of something, and you throw Reece Walsh in. They could\u2019ve used him,\u201d Carayannis said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn Origin, you know how fatigued you get. It\u2019s 10 times faster than any other game, there are tired players out there and you see a fit Reece Walsh at the back end and when there\u2019s tired Blues, they\u2019re fearing Walsh,\u201d NRL360 host Braith Anasta added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the last bloke I want to see come on the field if I\u2019m fatigued.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carayannis\u2019 colleague Brent Read disagreed with the notion that the Maroons \u201cneed\u201d Walsh, but said he\u2019d pick the livewire in his side.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree, I would have him on the extended bench, but they don\u2019t need him. <\/p>\n

\u201cBefore they went to 12 men, they had it in the bag.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d pick him as well. They just don\u2019t need him but I\u2019d pick him as well. chuck him in when blokes are tired and Reece is dynamite. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to see him there. He\u2019s fantastic and I\u2019d love to see him come in the game in the final ten minutes of each half and tear the Blues apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

It led Anasta to question why Read doesn\u2019t think the Maroons need Walsh.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you definitively saying they don\u2019t need him going off Game I? Even though NSW have to be better, they can\u2019t get any worse than they were in that first 20 minutes,\u201d Anasta put to Read.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reece Walsh isn\u2019t expected to win the Queensland No. 1 jersey for Game II, but to save the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,689,4428,346243,17343,341190,21683,763,2105,2485,67084,647,761,762,13392,158,677,701,13385,28008,13391,12127,159,263600,85,660,29646],"class_list":["post-712443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-brisbane-broncos","tag-broncos-teammates","tag-daily-telegraph","tag-electric-fullback","tag-ezra-mam","tag-fox-league","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-golden-chance","tag-melbourne","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-new-south-wales-blues","tag-nrl","tag-oceania","tag-queensland","tag-queensland-maroons","tag-quinn-rooney","tag-reece-walsh","tag-report-card","tag-rugby-league","tag-six-man-bench","tag-sports","tag-victoria","tag-young-stars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712443","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=712443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}