{"id":853974,"date":"2026-08-13T16:40:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T16:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/853974\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T16:40:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T16:40:23","slug":"nrl-2026-trent-robinson-speaks-about-sam-walker-contract-daly-cherry-evans-addresses-super-league-rumours-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/853974\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Trent Robinson speaks about Sam Walker contract, Daly Cherry-Evans addresses Super League rumours, press conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trent Robinson has revealed the \u201csign\u201d Sam Walker was switched on despite his ongoing contract drama<\/a> as the Roosters halfback steered his team to a 12-6 win over Penrith on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Robinson fronted the media on Wednesday to address reports contract talks with the 24-year-old had broken down, with Walker said to have turned down a four-year extension worth around $5 million.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The continual talk surrounding Walker\u2019s contract could have easily been a distraction ahead of the club\u2019s biggest game of the year, but instead the Queensland Origin representative looked locked in.<\/p>\n

The same went for skipper Daly Cherry-Evans, who also found himself in the headlines this week after he was linked with a move overseas to Hull FC<\/a> at the end of this season.<\/p>\n

Cherry-Evans responded to that outside noise with two tries and a man-of-the-match performance, but being far more inexperienced there was a genuine question \u2014 at least externally \u2014 as to how Walker would handle it. <\/p>\n

Robinson, however, said he got the answer to that question earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

‘We need to execute a bit better’ | 04:40<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t spoken about that this week. I didn\u2019t feel like it was sort of necessary,\u201d the Roosters coach said post-game. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re both not a part of it, even though I had to speak about it yesterday. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut you do look for signs when they come in and Sammy just walked in and (was) back to work and you (think) do I need to say something or not? And I didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a footy player, but I knew the way he was talking in meetings and that this week he was so clearly focused on this game and I said my piece there around Sammy. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want him to be purely focused on the now. I think I\u2019ve spoken about it a lot. Chez has spoken about it. We won a game tonight, but we haven\u2019t done anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson later said that his \u201csimple\u201d message to Walker during the week in the wake of the contract news was \u201cthat\u2019s cool, let\u2019s go, let\u2019s focus on each day and talk in October\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cherry-Evans also addressed reports that he is set to head over to the Super League at the end of this season in cryptic fashion.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight was a hell of a game, so it\u2019d be a shame to take away the focus of a game like that tonight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I do promise you, and I don\u2019t often promise you guys much, but I won\u2019t leave you hanging for too much longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

“I STILL have Penrith at number 1” | 09:27<\/p>\n

The Roosters have put themselves in the box seat to win the minor premiership with Thursday night\u2019s victory, moving ahead of the Panthers on the ladder into top spot. <\/p>\n

But you got the sense from Robinson\u2019s post-game press conference that the J. J. Giltinan Shield is not the focus, with the Roosters intent on making it all the way to the first week of October.<\/p>\n

That means all this talk about distractions and contracts won\u2019t derail their premiership push.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fighting for something that we want to get… that\u2019s really internal for us and I think that shows,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people have looked at it as does he (Walker) want to be there or not?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s hungry and that\u2019s why he\u2019s said that. Chez has said that. The way that we\u2019re speaking about it, we\u2019re just hungry for what we are capable of. Not to fight anybody or anything, but I think there\u2019s more in us and we want to see where we can go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trent Robinson has revealed the \u201csign\u201d Sam Walker was switched on despite his ongoing contract drama as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-853974","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\/853974","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=853974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}