Quote ="Zeus The Saint"Luke Walsh is over here already training and the lads have apparantly been ripping him to shreds because of his re-seeing hairline. Hope he settles quickly.
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Walshy started losing hair when he was 17. Don't know why he just doesn't shave it off.
Walshy is a player whose career I've followed pretty closely.
He started at Newcastle Wests in one of the best junior sides going around. Some of his team mates were Greg Inglis, Jarrod Mullen, Scott Dureau, Cory Paterson, Ben Farrar, Terrence Seuseu and 3 or 4 others who made firstgrade.
He joined the Knights juniors at under 16 level and went on to win the under 18s title and was in the losing grandfinal side at under 20s level. He represented NSW at under 19s level.
He made firstgrade at 20, but for the first few years he couldn't get his weight up over 70kg and he was dropped by the Knights for Scott Dureau.
At Penrith he put on a bit of size, but was still too small for NRL, despite having some great runs where he really was a consistant match winner with his kicking, passing and organising skills.
As a young bloke he spent years getting coaching from Andrew Johns along with Scott Dureau and Jarrod Mullen. Walsh was the star pupil of those 3, but also the smallest and weakest defender. During his time at Penrith they mostly topped the league in tries off kicks and Walshy had massive try assist stats.
He had some great results in the NRL, but most good sides eventually worked out he could be belted out of the game, but I don't think his lack of size and poor defence will be as big an issue in the ESL.
He does try in defence, but he's basically just a speed bump for big forwards.
He is a great organiser and a really skilful player. I'll be surprized if he isn't the best 7 in the ESL to be honest.