{"id":437898,"date":"2026-05-21T06:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T06:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/437898\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T06:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T06:12:10","slug":"darren-lockyer-goes-public-with-real-reason-reece-walsh-was-axed-from-state-of-origin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/437898\/","title":{"rendered":"Darren Lockyer goes public with real reason Reece Walsh was axed from State of Origin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland selector Darren Lockyer has revealed Reece Walsh\u2019s facial injury was the main reason he was overlooked for the State of Origin squad<\/a>, and the fact he\u2019s been down on confidence because of it. Walsh was controversially axed<\/a> from the Queensland squad for Game 1, with Kalyn Ponga getting the nod at fullback over the Kangaroos No.1.<\/p>\n

The fact Walsh wasn\u2019t even included in the 20-man squad has raised eyebrows and sparked plenty of questions, especially considering the addition of the six-man benches this year. Walsh suffered a fractured cheekbone in Round 5 and missed a month of footy.<\/p>\n

\"Reece<\/p>\n

Darren Lockyer (R) has opened up on Reece Walsh’s (L) omission from the Queensland squad for State of Origin 1. Image: Getty<\/p>\n

He returned in Round 9 and has been wearing a special guard on his face, as well as headgear. Speaking to The Courier Mail<\/a> on Thursday, Lockyer said the Queensland selection panel of himself, Billy Slater and Gene Miles had concerns over Walsh\u2019s confidence levels since he returned, and whether he\u2019s been 100 per cent in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

\"Reece<\/p>\n

Reece Walsh has been wearing a special guard on his face.<\/p>\n

(Hannah Peters)<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing into a big Origin game with confidence, it plays a huge factor,\u201d Lockyer said. \u201cReece is coming back from a month off. The Broncos are struggling a bit for form and we just felt that Kalyn is playing in a winning team at the moment. He is a big contributor to that and he is just in almost career-best form.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what Reece is capable of. The key now for Reece is how he responds to the disappointment and focuses on getting back to playing his best footy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsh was the best player in the NRL at the end of 2025. His start to 2026 wasn\u2019t as good, and he hasn\u2019t been at his brilliant best since his facial injury.<\/p>\n

Reece Walsh \u2018told Billy Slater he wasn\u2019t 100 per cent\u2019<\/p>\n

Speaking earlier this week, former NRL player James Maloney reported that Walsh had a recent conversation with Slater and told him he wasn\u2019t 100 per cent. \u201cTo me that makes sense,\u201d Maloney told news.com.au<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why else you\u2019d leave him out and I don\u2019t think Billy would leave him out if he was alright. But if he\u2019s said I\u2019m not quite right then [Slater] went \u2018OK I\u2019ll leave you (out of the team)\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reckon he\u2019s a big chance of being involved in Game 2 and 3. If you\u2019re not 100 per cent confident and you have to put your body on the line and you\u2019re concerned about it it would be a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lockyer confirmed that Walsh is still be in the frame for selection for the remainder of the series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queensland selector Darren Lockyer has revealed Reece Walsh\u2019s facial injury was the main reason he was overlooked for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[69666,223936,89866,111,139,69,13905,213,129382],"class_list":["post-437898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-billy-slater","tag-darren-lockyer","tag-kalyn-ponga","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-reece-walsh","tag-sports","tag-state-of-origin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}