New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nRapidly progressing through the club\u2019s ranks, Walsh\u2019s performances in the lower grades have intensified discussions around when – not if – he will be given a more regular taste of first-grade football.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have liked to see them give Joey more of a taste off the bench,\u201d Anasta said on NRL 360. <\/p>\n
\u201cGive him more of an opportunity, as they might need him and I don\u2019t care about age. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re good enough, you\u2019re old enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that conversation was sharpened on Wednesday when the club decided to hand him a two-year contract extension until the end of 2029, keeping him away from rival teams, including the Perth Bears and PNG Chiefs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s waiting in the wings,\u201d co-host Luke Keary said on NRL 360.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in the same situation as a young half, you\u2019ve got a few older blokes in front of you and you\u2019ve got to bide your time, but at some stage the cream rises and he\u2019ll take over.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be interesting, does he go in the six there? Does he go into the seven? It\u2019s an interesting story over the next (12 months).\u201d<\/p>\n
Herbie shuts down Roosters rumours | 00:43<\/p>\n
Having gone through a similar situation early in his own career, Keary believes that the 20-year-old shouldn\u2019t be rushed into the NRL at the moment due to the great form of the current halves pairing of Luke Brooks and Jamal Fogarty.<\/p>\n
But that situation could quickly change if results or their consistency falters in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe results this year, when Kieran\u2019s been there, you have to hold him back,\u201d Keary added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose two have done a terrific job since Kieran\u2019s taking over. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, at the start of the year if you\u2019d ask me I would have said it was Luke Brooks is the one under pressure and Joey Walsh fits in as a five-eighth and Jamal helps him with all the kicking. <\/p>\n
\u201cI feel that if he came in with Luke they would be a lot of responsibility with him there. They\u2019ve got a decision to make in the next 12 months with Luke Brooks\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only has Walsh\u2019s new deal created a dilemma in the immediate future but it also forces the Sea Eagles to think about their long-term halves picture and whether or not to retain Luke Brooks beyond 2027.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure why we always focus on Jamal. I know he\u2019s the halfback and the number seven but they\u2019ve got a guy there in the number six whose had a lot of footy and Luke\u2019s only got 12 months left,\u201d Code Sports\u2019 Brent Read.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got a decision to make about Luke Brooks. We put all the focus and attention on Jamal and that\u2019s unfair on Jamal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cShould they be persistent with him? Should they keep holding him back the way they are? Or give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-757653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757653","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=757653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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