Injured Broncos hooker Billy Walters has admitted he had mixed emotions about Brisbane’s grand final triumph, simply because he couldn’t celebrate the moment with his father.
Kevin Walters was unceremoniously dumped after last year’s below-par season, 12 months after taking Brisbane so close to breaking its grand final hoodoo, only for a Nathan Cleary masterclass resulting in Penrith pulling off a historic comeback.
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So after Brisbane finally broke its 19-year drought and, in turn, handed Walters an elusive premiership, the 31-year-old said he was left feeling “really sorry” for his dad, who wasn’t present on Sunday night.
“I’m obviously really feeling for Kev,” Walters said.
“I want to enjoy winning a premiership, but I just feel really sorry for him because it’s a squad that he built.
“We should’ve done this two years ago when we were here in 2023. Now he’s not here.
“It’s footy sometimes, and I know he’s a massive Broncs fan. He’s still really close with a lot of boys in the squad. Although he’s probably hurting, he’s probably really happy as well.”
Billy Walters says he has mixed feelings about Brisbane’s NRL grand final triumph. Image: Instagram/Getty
However, the hooker was thankful for getting a special grand final moment courtesy of captain Adam Reynolds.
Walters tore his ACL in the Broncos’ qualifying final victory over the Raiders in Canberra on September 14, after proving instrumental in turning their season around, stepping up in the absence of Ezra Mam and Reynolds, who were sidelined for several weeks at the back end of the year.
Since then Walters has remained in and around the side, and Broncos coach Michael Maguire even named him in the extended squad for the grand final so he would be able to be part of the preparations.
His teammates also unofficially named him the Chief Motivation Officer ahead of the grand final, which saw him being included in the NRL grand final presentation earlier this week.
And in a beautiful moment, Reynolds welcomed him on stage to help him lift the trophy.
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“I was pretty devo that I wasn’t going to get a ring today, but that’s probably even a better result because I’ll probably never get to raise a trophy like that as a captain.
“It’s 10 times better than getting a ring