{"id":471019,"date":"2025-09-17T20:46:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T20:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=471019"},"modified":"2025-09-17T23:19:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T23:19:02","slug":"that-cant-happen-freddys-plea-after-ugly-walsh-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=471019","title":{"rendered":"'That can't happen': Freddy's plea after ugly Walsh moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

B\ufeffrad Fittler<\/a> has called on the NRL to do a better job of protecting players in the wake of Reece Walsh's stoush with Canberra fans last weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old Broncos superstar was sin binned for a headbutt on Hudson Young<\/a> during hi\ufeffs side's dramatic golden point win in the qualifying final.<\/p>\n

But it was as Walsh was leaving the field and heading up the tunnel that things turned a little bit ugly, with the fullback flipping the bird towards the crowd.<\/p>\n

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Walsh was charged with contrary conduct by the match review committee and escaped with a fine – but according to league great Fittler, there needs to be changes made to stop similar types of situations occurring in the future.<\/p>\n

\"Broncos<\/p>\n

"They've got to protect players better," he said on Nine's Freddy and The Eighth<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

"At any stage there, emotions get high and they have to protect the players.<\/p>\n

"You can't have people being able to lean over and get access to players or referees – that can't happen, we don't need to deal with that anywhere in the game.<\/p>\n

"We need to be able to make sure that around our tunnels, there's protection so players don't have to deal with it."<\/p>\n

Andrew Johns<\/a> admitted the amount of "abuse" that players cop is at a high level and sympathised with Walsh for sticking his middle finger up at them.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

As for the on-field incident itself, Fittler had a differing opinion to most ex-players.<\/p>\n

While it was the Broncos speedster who landed in hot water, Young was also sin binned and Canberra were penalised by referee Ashley Klein due to the back-rower instigating the brief melee between the two sides by mouthing off at Walsh and pushing him.<\/p>\n

Most argued that Young getting penalised was the wrong call, but Fittler believes his actions "started the problem" and led to the reaction from Walsh.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I was happy that Hudson Young got penalised and it went to Brisbane \u2026 but he didn't need to be sin binned," Fittler said.<\/p>\n

"He didn't deserve to be sin binned, but by him walking 10 metres and pushing Reece, that started the problem and I can agree with the referee on that.<\/p>\n

\"Walsh,<\/p>\n

"He's walked after him and pursued him, so I can live with the fact that Brisbane got the penalty – but the sin binning for him was ridiculous."<\/p>\n

Johns, who called the game for Nine, was on the other side of the fence to his co-host and conceded the modern game allows for the type of antics displayed by Young, which usually would go unpunished by match officials.<\/p>\n

"I think it was ridiculous they got the penalty," the rugby league Immortal said.<\/p>\n

"He was just in his face being an agitator and we've seen it. I think it can be a dangerous precedent but if they are going to penalise it, just be consistent.<\/p>\n

"This is a by-product of not being able to throw a punch. There's players of past eras, that was their career – getting under people's skin.<\/p>\n

"Once again, players are a lot braver now that they don't get a punch in the head."<\/p>\n

Young will line up for Canberra in their sudden-death semi final against the Sharks on Saturday, while Walsh has been cleared to play in Brisbane's prelim on September 28.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Joey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

B\ufeffrad Fittler has called on the NRL to do a better job of protecting players in the wake of Reece Walsh's stoush with Canberra fans […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":471021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471019"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=471019"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471024,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471019\/revisions\/471024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/471021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=471019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=471019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=471019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}