You could write a million words about Brisbane’s 29-28 win over Canberra and they still wouldn’t be enough but there’s only two that really matter and they’re “Reece Walsh.”
In one of the most dramatic, controversial, heartbreaking, life-affirming and death-defying games ever played, Walsh was the one who reached up and grabbed the Sun.
Sometimes he held it too tightly, like he can do. The ramifications of his headbutt on Hudson Young will decide if Brisbane’s fire walk through September can still continue.
But the best of the Broncos fullback is so bright it can be blinding. Walsh dragged back from the brink and then to one of their greatest ever wins.
A key part of understanding Walsh is knowing he lives on the edge of the cliff, so he will go there without fear.
First he did it himself, bursting into space and rounding Kaeo Weekes, who is fast enough to have scored a length of the field try himself not long before, with consummate ease.
Then he kicked his second 40/20 of the match and fired a pass out to Josiah Karapani for Brisbane’s second try in as many minutes, which was when the rowdy Canberra Stadium crowd started exchanging worried looks.
As the dust settles every Bronco will say they never gave up, but surely down 16 with the shadows growing longer some of them would have.
It was Walsh who lifted them, Walsh who inspired more efforts and more again, and Walsh who stared down 25,000 green screamers without blinking.
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They gave it to him, especially when he was sin binned after the scuffle with Young, and he gave it back.
Walsh can have too much carry-on for some, but that’s the other side of his fearless brilliance and that’s a trade any fan, player or coach would make every single time.
Like a medieval battle, the prince of another city made the capital his own and while Canberra’s famous for the cold, fire won the day over the ice.
This was Walsh’s game but did not produce the matchwinner. That honour went to the old warhorse Ben Hunt, who hates kicking field goals and only has one in his previous 351 odd NRL matches.
Hunt can do so many things on the field even now, as the last player left in the entire competition who debuted in the first decade of the 21st century, but this was a surprise few would have thought he had in him.
It was that kind of day, where old dogs could learn new tricks, where team songs rang out only for the game to continue and where dreams were made and broken, where the Raiders won it three times before they lost it the only time that counted.
It was won when they went up 16, it was won when Walsh’s desperate field goal sailed wide and it was won when Jamal Fogarty looked to have scored near the end of extra time.
But their heads got shaky when Walsh caught fire. Zac Hosking, who had played so well and toiled so hard, caught Walsh’s leg and put the game into extra time. Jed Stuart was judged to have knocked the ball on before Fogarty’s try.
The latter two were correct calls, but that doesn’t make them any easier to swallow. The Raiders have had their share of miracles this year but being on the wrong side of one makes it feel less like a miracle and more like a punishment from the almighty.
Getting up off the deck for next week’s knockout final against a Cronulla team who have grown a little chest hair after their tough win over the Roosters is an enormous ask for such a young side. Sometimes when you lose a game like this, you lose a piece of yourself.
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All year, things have felt like they were falling Canberra’s way. There is no destiny in rugby league except what men can make for themselves, but the Raiders had that special look about them and played with the kind of belief that has carried them through so many dangers.
This game was the same — until Walsh decided it would not be so.
The Broncos will now have a home preliminary final in two weeks’ time. Whether Walsh is there or not will depend on how the judiciary sees his challenge on Young.
If he is there anything is possible for the Broncos, for better and for worse but lately it’s been so much of the former it’s hard to even think about the latter.
If he’s not, Brisbane’s premiership hopes likely go with him.
He is not the captain, but he is the reason they’re only ever a few minutes away from coming back to life.
He makes their blood run hot. He grabs the Sun and even if it burns him, he never lets go.
