NZ Warriors coach Nathan Brown has leapt to the defence of star rookie Reece Walsh, after Sunday's heartbreaking 24-22 loss to Brisbane Broncos.
In a defeat which has all but extinguished the Warriors' hopes of making a late surge to the NRL playoffs, the precocious fullback was far from his best against his former side, committing some critical errors and converting just one of the team's five tries.
The 19-year-old was in tears at full-time, consoled by members of both teams, with the Warriors now left relying on other results to leapfrog Cronulla Sharks, Gold Coast Titans, and Canberra Raiders to make the top eight, while they'll also need to beat the latter two in their final fortnight of regular season play.
Walsh has been dependable off the tee since taking over the kicking duties, and Sunday's game was the first in which he's missed more than one attempt. The majority of his shots against the Broncos also came from the sideline.
Half Chad Townsend, who was injected late into the starting side after missing three weeks with injury, was another goalkicking option, but the Warriors chose to stick with Walsh.
Brown says the experience is all part of the steep learning curve Walsh faces in his debut season in first grade.
"Obviously, we didn’t kick very well," Brown said.
"[Walsh] is a goalkicker and has been kicking for us for the last six or seven weeks.
"That's something he does well and he strikes the ball well. Reece hasn't even scratched the surface of his football yet. He's playing on instinct and natural talent at the moment.
"He has got plenty to his game that to become an elite NRL fullback he needs to work at and that will come with experience and time.
"The pre-season will be a good time for Reece to work on other parts of his game."
Brown believes the Warriors' lack of adventure with ball in hand early is what led to their downfall.
"We scored five tries to four. Obviously we didn't kick so well," he said.
"I thought we started off far too conservative with the ball. That's for the birds these days as far as I'm concerned.
"Just hitting the ball up and not using the ball, I thought our first 20 was really poor offensively.
"And then when we started to play some footy I thought we scored some terrific tries and our kick defence wasn't good.
"They got three of their four tries from kicks, which is obviously something they work hard at.
"When you've got big targets like [Xavier Coates and Corey Oates] we needed to be a little bit better."
The loss is the Warrior's sixth of the season by four points or less.
They'll face Canberra Raiders on Friday night.
Join us from 8pm, Friday for live updates of the NRL clash between NZ Warriors and Brisbane Broncos
