Brisbane Broncos coach Kevin Walters conceded he won’t make the mistake of not having an outside back on his bench again after being forced into a major reshuffle at the back when Reece Walsh was injured.
Walsh was on the wrong end of a sickening head clash with Taylan May in the opening minutes of the game and was left with a nasty gash underneath his left eye.
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Although he passed his HIA, Walsh struggled to see out of the eye and was eventually ruled of the contest while May was penalised for the incident and also placed on report.
However, given Walsh wasn’t ruled out due to an HIA, it meant Walters could not activate Tristan Sailor — son of Wendell — as the 18th man, leaving him with an interchange devoid of outside backs to properly replace the speedster.
The Broncos boss could only turn to Tyson Smoothy, Kobe Hetherington, Marty Taupau or Xavier Willison, forcing him to plug square pegs into round holes at the back.
Walters could only put his hands up and admit he got it wrong when it came to naming Sailor as his 18th man and revealed he and his coaching staff would ensure more players are drilled to become comfortable playing as an outside back.
“We’ve got Tristan Sailor parked there as 18th man but he can’t come into the game, so we won’t be doing that again,” Walters said in his post-match press conference.
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“Well, we have to (have him on our bench), because if you lose some of those outside backs, it’s a specialist position, fullback.
“Anyway, I’m not blaming that, we just didn’t handle the situation well. All clubs face it at different times and that’s probably the first time this group have had to face it.
“We’ll be better too as coaches to make sure we get more training in that position where he’s (Walsh) not there.”
When quizzed on whether the NRL should alter the rules to bring in the 18th man if a player is ruled out to do an incident that stemmed from a penalty, Walters could only joke about the situation.
“Well if you’re Ivan Cleary, you probably don’t want to tinker with it,” Walters said.
“The game’s been around for a long time. We’ve just got to be better there.
“Me, as a coach, I’ve got to pick the right people on the bench to make sure we have good access to cover everything, so I take a bit of the blame there.”
Walters was also noncommittal on Walsh’s injury, with the club confirming he is set to undergo scans on Friday morning to assess the full extent of the damage to his left eye.
“Yeah, he’s not too good in there but we’ve got good people to look after him,” Walters said.
“He’s having trouble seeing. He’s got a big gash.
“He tried to get back on but he just wasn’t right so we pulled him from the game.”
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