Which Reece Walsh will turn up this week to take on the Melbourne Storm?

It’s no use the Brisbane Broncos glamour fullback playing superhero against the injury-ravaged Rabbitohs if he can’t back it up on Thursday night against the premiership favourites.

A week after Walsh’s rocks and diamonds display in the shock loss to Parramatta, the Broncos’ excitement machine flicked the switch and turned on the afterburners in the 10-tries-to-three annihilation of Wayne Bennett’s busted Bunnies.

Walsh was in just about everything to finish with four try assists and a try along with five tackle busts, a linebreak and four linebreak assists.

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At one point Walsh and his little mate Ezra Mam even managed to get under the skin of Rabbitohs enforcer Jai Arrow when they were racing away for another try and looked to be joking about who should get to touch down.

You could see Arrow’s blood boiling as he chased after them like his life depended on it, before diving onto Mam and giving him a gobful as the Broncos celebrated.

You couldn’t help but feel sorry for the Bunnies at that moment, and especially Arrow who played as tough as any forward on the field.

But it was also an insight into the confidence (that borders on arrogance) that drives these Broncos when they are in the zone.

Although it’s one thing putting on a clinic against a team missing more than $6 million in salary cap talent and racking up a 60-14 scoreline.

It is another thing entirely travelling to Melbourne to tackle the toughest away trip there is in rugby league _ against the team that has had the wood on the Broncos for basically as far back as anyone can remember.

The Broncos certainly won’t need reminding of their atrocious record against the Storm in Melbourne, where they have lost their last eight matches at AAMI Park stretching back to 2016.

Make no mistake, we are about to find out if the Broncos have truly evolved under Michael Maguire’s hard-nosed coaching style this year, compared to where they were under Kevin Walters who was punted because the team wasn’t considered tough enough.

There’s no question that the Broncos have already shown significant improvement in respect to where they are placed on the ladder.

They currently sit sixth with 11 wins from their 19 games after the weekend’s round, with a positive points differential of 124.

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This time last year they were 14th after 22 rounds, with only eight wins from 20 games and a negative 28 points differential.

But has anything really changed in respect to the football they are playing is the big question that remains unanswered?

If they can go to Melbourne and aim up against the Storm in the countdown to the finals it would be a massive statement about why we should regard them as a genuine premiership force in 2025.

All season there have been doubts hanging over Maguire’s coaching style, and whether or not the players were responding to it.

But in many ways Walsh remains the Broncos’ barometer.

When he’s on fire they are close to unstoppable, like they were against the Bunnies on Friday night.

But while people say Madge must allow Walsh the freedom to express himself, it is a fine line.

Even though Bennett said after the game that he thinks the Broncos have the roster to win the premiership, that was never the issue in the first place even when Walters was in charge.

We always knew they had the talent, but do they now have the toughness and temperament to go with it and take them to the next level?

Even though they have beaten the Bulldogs twice this year (the Warriors and Sharks were their other big scalps), many still see the Broncos as flat-track bullies, who don’t play with enough patience and control to stand up when it matters most.

But beating the Storm on their own turf would be a statement that they can deliver in big end of season games.

There is no one more important to the Broncos’ hopes than the flighty fullback.

PANTHERS TRAINER NEEDS TO COP A TOUGH PENALTY FOR STUPIDITY

The NRL need to draw a line in the sand and come down hard on the Penrith trainer who ran directly in front of Jayden Campbell before that conversion attempt in the Titans’ controversial loss on Saturday.

Anything less than Corey Bocking being sidelined for at least the rest of the season from his match-day duties would be a cop out.

Even if it was an honest mistake, that was the rugby league definition of negligence — and deserving of not only a heavy fine for the club but a long suspension for Bocking for his stupidity.

In any field of work you are not only required to know the rules but work within them.

Yet what we saw on the Gold Coast on Saturday from the most professional club in the business was just a disgrace.

It’s no use Bocking throwing hands up after the event and saying sorry given Campbell was clearly put off and then missed his conversion.

Anyone who has ever run the water for a team from the under 8s up knows you can’t run in front of the kicker.

So to do it at NRL level is just unforgiveable.

You must also factor in that this is the fourth time there has been dramas in recent years surrounding Penrith trainers.

Shane Elford was banned for a game back in May for squirting water on a footy during the match against the Cowboys, for which the club was also fined $10,000.

Peter Green was suspended for the rest of the season in 2021 while Penrith was fined $25,000 after a finals match against Parramatta.

On that occasion Green stopped play to attend to hooker Mitch Kenny.

NRL rules state trainers must not signal for the referee to stop play until an initial assessment had been performed.

Then in 2022 Green was also involved in an alleged altercation with South Sydney’s Jed Cartwright in a finals game.

That one prompted an angry reaction from Cody Walker, while Jed’s father John Cartwright publicly called for Green to be banned from the job for life.

Even though the current rules do not allow for a team to get a second conversion attempt in this instance, the punishment needs to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The incident completely took the gloss of Nathan Cleary’s stunning field goal to send the match into golden point.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better field goal in my 30 years reporting on the game.

But I also can’t remember ever feeling as outraged about the actions of a trainer, unintentional or otherwise.

You can only imagine how Campbell must have felt as his threw his kicking tee into the turf.

Not to mention Des Hasler who is fighting to save his job but somehow managed to control himself at the post-match media conference.

It’s up to the NRL to make sure we are not talking about more unfortunate incidents from Panthers trainers in the months ahead.

IT WOULD BE MADNESS TO LET DOUEIHI LEAVE TIGERS

Hallelujah.

Hopefully we can now finally put Lachlan Galvin’s messy exit from Wests Tigers to bed and stop regurgitating the same bloody storyline every week.

As for the Tigers going forward, let that be the new benchmark.

Because that gutsy 28-14 win over the Bulldogs showed what this roster is capable of even without Galvin.

If the Tigers had played like that all season there is absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t be playing finals this year.

And while it’s probably too late to make the top eight even if the results went their way over the final five rounds, at the very least you’d think the Tigers could still make a statement to finish off the season.

On what we saw against the Bulldogs, there is no reason why they can’t win all their remaining games.

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After the bye they take on the Sea Eagles followed by the Cowboys, Raiders and Titans.

Wouldn’t it be something to see the Tigers roar home and at least give their long-suffering fans more reason to look forward to next season.

As for Adam Doueihi’s future, Shane Richardson might need to up his offer to make sure Doueihi doesn’t end up at the Dragons next season.

It would be madness letting Doueihi go on the money they are talking about.

The chat has been the Tigers’ original offer was for around $350,000 for one season, which was then upped to about $400,000.

But that Dragons are ready to match that _ over two years.

To think the Tigers were willing to pay Galvin $1 million-a-season to try and entice him to stay.

Surely they can come up with at least half of that figure for a couple more years to keep Doueihi.

We should remember Doueihi is still only 26.

Despite all he has already been through including three ACL knee reconstructions, Doueihi’s best footballing years are still ahead of him.

Whether it’s playing halfback, five-eighth lock or centre, this bloke rarely turns in a bad game, and you can just see the absolute passion he has playing for the Tigers.

DO ROOSTERS REALLY NEED DCE?

Why are the Roosters signing Daly Cherry-Evans when they already have Sam Walker to play halfback?

It makes even less sense after watching Walker turn on a masterclass against Cherry-Evans’ Sea Eagles in the Roosters’ 20-4 win on Saturday.

Walker set up all three of the Roosters’ tries in just his fourth game back from injury.

You’d imagine it will also be a bitter pill for young Hugo Savala to swallow when he is forced to go back to the bench or NSW Cup to make way for Cherry-Evans in the halves.

TEDDY SHOULD BUY HIMSELF A LOTTERY TICKET

Still on that same game, and why wasn’t James Tedesco at least sent to the sin bin for that ugly collision with Lehi Hopoate?

Fair dinkum, Teddy might be a cleanskin.

But he still got this one horribly wrong when he collected the young Manly fullback with a knee to the head at full speed while chasing a bomb.

It’s lucky Hopoate didn’t sustain a serious injury.

While he went off for a head injury assessment, he was fortunate to be able to return to play.

But no wonder the Manly players were blowing up at the time, with Jazz Tevaga declaring it could have killed young Hopoate.

Tevaga then copped a dressing down from the ref for going overboard with his response.

Fair dinkum.

I actually thought when it happened it was a close to a sendoff, and only the fact Hopoate wasn’t badly injured saved Teddy, cleanskin or not.

But unbelievably, Tedesco not only escaped with a penalty on the field, but the NRL match review committee slapped him with a lettuce leaf for grade one dangerous contact, which means he escapes with a $1000 fine with the early guilty plea.

Can you imagine how the Rooster might have reacted if that was Teddy on the receiving end and he copped an injury out of it?

Last week we saw Jack Wighton sin binned and then suspended for four games for his head clash/shoulder charge on Toby Rudolf.

Teddy should buy himself a lottery ticket.

DEFEAT RAIDERS NEEDED AHEAD OF FINALS

Ricky Stuart can finally breathe easy.

The Canberra Raiders’ shock 18-12 loss to the Dragons is the defeat they needed counting down to the finals.

The Raiders have been lucky to get away with a few wins in recent weeks despite some average form.

Yet this time they were so bad they just couldn’t save the game with their attacking brilliance like they usually do.

Poor Jamal Fogarty had the worst game he’s played in a Canberra jumper, but he certainly wasn’t on his own.

Usually Fogarty has one of the best kicking games in the NRL.

But he was terrible in this one, even failing to find touch with two sideline penalty kicks.

Admittedly, it was blowing a gale in the Gong.

But for a player of his experience, Fogarty should have handled it a lot better.

To their credit the Dragons played smart wet weather footy and deserved the victory.

While Kyle Flanagan’s goal kicking was the difference with the team’s finishing two tries apiece, young five-eighth Lyhkan King-Togia had a terrific game and really took control in the second half.

The Raiders now host the Sea Eagles in Canberra on Friday night.

You’d expect to see a far more committed team turn up for this one, especially Fogarty who takes on the club who he will join next season on a three-year deal.

DRAGONS COP ANOTHER BUNKER HOWLER

What about the Bunker decision not to back the Dragons’ captain’s challenge when Hudson Young clearly punched the ball out of Kyle Flanagan’s hands?

How they come up with that being a loose carry will do me.

When the NRL initially brought in the Bunker they said it would put an end to the howlers.

Here we are all these years later still shaking our heads at what look to be straight forward decisions like this one.

DAZZLING DOLPHINS’ CRUEL BLOW

There is no better team to watch than the Dolphins this year.

And they produced another amazing moment with Jamayne Isaako racing over with seconds to go to get out of jail in the 20-18 win over the Warriors.

It’s just such a shame Herbie Farnworth suffered a hamstring injury that could rule him out for the rest of the regular season.

It happened after Farnworth made a long range bust and was looking to draw the fullback with Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow racing up in support.

If only Farnworth passed the ball a few steps earlier the injury might not have happened.

Farnworth will be a massive loss when the eighth-placed Dolphins taking on the ninth placed Roosters this Saturday.

TIME TO SHOW SHARKS MORE RESPECT

That makes it four on the trot for the Sharks who are now a real threat of pushing for a top four finish given their relatively easy draw coming up.

With a bye still in hand, they will back up their 32-12 win over the Cowboys when they take on the Dragons this Saturday followed by the Titans, Knights and Bulldogs.

While you still don’t hear many experts rating them up with the competition heavyweights, it might be time for us all to start giving Craig Fitzgibbon’s team a bit more respect.

As for the Cowboys, it was embarrassing how bad they started this game given their season was basically on the line.

You’d imagine it will only heap more pressure on Todd Payten.

RYLES CAN MAKE PARRA GREAT AGAIN

One coach who looks set for a long future in the game is Jason Ryles.

The transformation of Parramatta over the course of the season shows exactly why so many good judges rated Ryles so highly.

Even in defeat against an underwhelming Storm side who were without superstar halfback Jahrome Hughes, the Eels certainly didn’t disappoint.

We’ve seen in recent weeks what an amazing difference Mitchell Moses makes when he’s playing.

Yet where Ryles deserves most credit is for his ability to breed confidence in the younger players like Joash Papalii who continue to stand up week after week even against the most talented teams like the Storm and the Broncos after what has already been a tough and very long season.

That comes on the back of the strength Ryles showed to not only make the tough calls of letting senior players go at the start of the season, but also banishing Dylan Brown from the team.

Every decision Ryles has made so far has been bang on the money.

Matty Johns predicted last week that he reckons Parramatta will win a comp under Ryles at some point.

While that’s a massive call considering the Eels last premiership was way back in 1986, it shows the faith some of the best judges have in Ryles to be the man to make Parramatta great again.