{"id":480253,"date":"2025-11-18T01:57:47","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T02:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=480253"},"modified":"2025-11-18T22:21:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:21:41","slug":"balmain-grand-final-hero-dies-after-cancer-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=480253","title":{"rendered":"Balmain grand final hero dies after cancer battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Walsh – one of the heroes of Balmain Tigers' legendary 1969 grand final win – has died.<\/p>\n

A tough-tackling second-rower from the Riverina, Walsh died from cancer on Tuesday morning, aged 79.<\/p>\n

The snowy-haired forward was a key member of the Balmain team that beat Souths in what is still regarded as the greatest upset in grand final history in 1969.<\/p>\n

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"He only came to the club from the bush that year so it really was a fairytale for Joe," said former Tigers team-mate and tryscoring winger Paul Cross.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"He had a great work rate and tackled anyone that moved – he was one of the best defenders of that era.<\/p>\n

"In the grand final, he was just dynamic and stopped Souths attacker after attacker."<\/p>\n

Walsh only played five seasons with the Tigers before returning to the bush, where he had a long career.<\/p>\n

He led Cowra Magpies, to a premiership in 1978 – a team that included a young Royce Simmons.<\/p>\n

A host of former Balmain stars are expected to attend his funeral in Wagga next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Walsh – one of the heroes of Balmain Tigers' legendary 1969 grand final win – has died. A tough-tackling second-rower from the Riverina, Walsh […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":480255,"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\/480253"}],"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=480253"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":480256,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480253\/revisions\/480256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/480255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=480253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=480253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=480253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}