{"id":519432,"date":"2026-07-10T15:39:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T15:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/519432\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T15:39:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T15:39:17","slug":"kevin-walters-backtracks-over-kangaroos-fullback-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/519432\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Walters backtracks over Kangaroos fullback call"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian Kangaroos head coach Kevin Walters<\/a> has dramatically backtracked over his call that Reece Walsh<\/a> would be the the starting fullback at the Rugby League<\/a> World Cup at the end of this year.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the Inside Ball podcast, Walters last weekend went through a number of key positions<\/a> in his Australian side who will look to defend the trophy they won last time around in England<\/a>, this time on home soil.<\/p>\n

When quizzed around the fullback position, he seemed to indicate Walsh was a walk-up starter after playing there and impressing against England<\/a> during the 2025 Ashes series.<\/p>\n

“We all know who the fullback is going to be,” Walters said on the Inside Ball Podcast.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, 100 per cent.<\/p>\n

“He hasn’t been bad, I mean, he is just in that Broncos side who are not playing with a lot of confidence at the moment.”<\/p>\n

Walters, in a follow up on SEN Radio on Thursday though backtracked on those comments, admitting Dylan Edwards<\/a> and James Tedesco<\/a> were in the mix, while Walsh being unlikely to play finals at the struggling Brisbane Broncos<\/a> would hurt his chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, at the moment, he’s obviously put himself, from what he did last year on the Kangaroo Tour, right in the selection,\u201d Walters told SEN 1170 Drive.<\/p>\n

\u201c(And) there’s Dylan Edwards<\/a>, and James Tedesco<\/a>, there’s a big scramble on there between those three at the moment for the back end of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cReece probably won’t play in finals, so that might be hurting a little bit, but he’s a great player, and we haven’t seen a lot of that from him this year, but I’ve got a lot of respect and I love the way he plays.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also, Edwards and Tedesco equally, they’ve got different skills, so we’re pretty blessed in that position.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ll see what happens at the back end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

Walters worked with Walsh at the Brisbane Broncos<\/a>, and the pair are close, but there is no guarantee of the fullback returning to the Kangaroos set up without a big finish to the year.<\/p>\n

Walters’ comments around Walsh were met with obvious reaction from fans who couldn’t understand why Walsh’s form would have him in line to be considered.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Walters, who will select the team for the World Cup the day after the grand final alongside Darren Lockyer<\/a>, Cameron Smith<\/a>, Andrew Johns, Boyd Cordner<\/a> and Peter V’Landys, said Queensland halfback Sam Walker<\/a> is also a chance of debuting, although loyalty to players will be considered.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Walker has) matched it with all of them through this, and, traditionally, the Australian Kangaroos are very loyal to their players, and I don’t see that being any different when we sit down to select the side at the back end of the year,\u201d Walters said.<\/p>\n

Nathan Cleary<\/a> is the Kangaroos’ incumbent halfback, having played all three games there during the sweep of England<\/a> in the United Kingdom last year.<\/p>\n

Walters, in speaking on the original Inside Ball podcast also suggested Dolphins<\/a> trio Selwyn Cobbo<\/a>, Jack Bostock<\/a> and Max Plath<\/a> would be selected if the team was picked today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian Kangaroos head coach Kevin Walters has dramatically backtracked over his call that Reece Walsh would be the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-519432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519432","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=519432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}