Cody Walker (rugby league)

Cody Walker
Personal information
Born (1990-01-10) 10 January 1990
Nowra, New South Wales, Australia
Height 179 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Weight 90 kg (14 st 2 lb)
Playing information
Position Five-eighth, Fullback, Halfback

Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2016– South Sydney 70 26 10 0 124
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2017 Country NSW 1 0 0 0 0
As of 27 January 2018
Source: [1]

Cody Walker (born 10 January 1990) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the National Rugby League. He primarily plays at five-eighth and fullback, but can also fill in at halfback.

Background

Born in Nowra, New South Wales, Walker moved to Casino, New South Wales at a young age[2] and is of Indigenous Australian and Samoan descent.[3] He attended Palm Beach Currumbin High School[4] and played his junior rugby league for the Casino Cougars, before being signed by the Gold Coast Titans on a 4-year contract.[2]

Walker is the younger brother of former Penrith Panthers player Ryan Walker[2] and cousin of Gold Coast Titans player Shannon Walker.[5]

Playing career

Early career

In 2009 and 2010, Walker played for the Gold Coast Titans' NYC team.[6]

In 2011, he followed his brother Ryan to the Penrith Panthers and played for their New South Wales Cup team, the Windsor Wolves.[2] In 2012, he joined the Eastern Suburbs Tigers in the Queensland Cup.[7]

After impressing in the 2012 season, he was invited to train with the Melbourne Storm in the 2013 NRL pre-season,[8] before returning to the Titans for the 2013 season.

On 17 July 2013, he played for the Queensland Residents against the New South Wales Residents.[9] At the conclusion of the 2013 season, he won the Queensland Cup's Best and Fairest award as well as topping the competition for points scored.[5]

In September 2013, he signed a 1-year contract with the Melbourne Storm starting in 2014.[10]

Walker playing for the North Sydney Bears in 2015

On 17 June 2014, he signed a 2-year contract with the South Sydney Rabbitohs starting in 2015.[11]

In 2015, Walker played for the North Sydney Bears in the NSW Cup. With Walker in the side, Norths made the finals series at seasons end. Walker collected two awards for his contributions winning Best & Fairest and Players player at North's end of the year presentation. [12]

2016

In Round 1 of the 2016 NRL season, Walker made his NRL debut for the Rabbitohs against the Sydney Roosters, at five-eighth.[13][14] He was one of the most influential players in his side's 42-10 win at Allianz Stadium. Whilst in that match, he was filling in for the suspended Luke Keary, an injury to halfback, Adam Reynolds saw Walker maintain his position. In Round 5, Walker scored his first career try against the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in the Rabbitohs' 16-12 win at Brookvale Oval. Despite multiple strong performances for Souths, Reynolds' return in Round 7 would push Walker out of the line-up. In Round 11, Walker was brought back into the side at the surprise position of fullback. Despite having never played the position since his teen years, he managed to set-up and score a try in his team's 34-24 win over the St. George Illawarra Dragons.[15] Afterwards, on 1 June, he re-signed with the Rabbitohs on a 2-year contract.[16] However, it was later revealed that he never put pen to paper before the Rabbitohs made the announcement, leaving the contract up in the air.[17] In July, he officially signed a 3-year contract with the Rabbitohs until the end of 2019.[18] He finished the 2016 season playing 20 games, scoring 8 tries[19] and making 12 try-assists.

2017

Walker was named in the Rabbitohs squad for the 2017 NRL Auckland Nines.[20]. On 1 May 2017, Walker was named in The NSW Country representative side to take on The NSW City representative side in the last ever City vs Country game. Walker alternated between Five-eighth and Fullback throughout the year as the Rabbitohs struggled to cope with a season ending injury to Captain Greg Inglis in the opening round of the season. Walker finished the year playing all 24 games and not missing a single minute. He scored 6 tries while topping the Try Assists (18), Line Breaks (16) and Line Break Assists (20) charts for all Five-eighths.

References

  1. ↑ "Cody Walker - Career Stats & Summary". Rugby League Project. 1990-01-10. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Michael Carayannis (2016-02-22). "South Sydney Rabbitohs young gun Cody Walker set to make NRL debut". Smh.com.au. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  3. ↑ "Nocookies". The Australian. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  4. ↑ "Arrive alive Cup Grand Final 2008 - Matraville SHS Vs Palm Beach Currumbin - Action Photo Gallery". Ourfootyteam.com. 2008-09-26. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
  5. 1 2 "Casino's Cody Walker takes out QRL Best and Fairest award". Northern Star. 2013-09-12. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  6. ↑ "W". Nyc Database. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  7. ↑ "Walker, Kauffman big winners at Tigers' awards night". Couriermail.com.au. 2012-10-05. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  8. ↑ "Easts duo Thompson and Walker training with Melbourne Storm NRL's top squad during the off-season". Couriermail.com.au. 2012-12-13. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  9. ↑ NRL. "XXXX Queensland Residents team". QRL. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  10. ↑ Zero Tackle (2013-09-11). "Walker signs with the Storm". Zero Tackle. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  11. ↑ Rabbitohs.com.au (2014-06-17). "Cody Walker signs with Rabbitohs". Zero Tackle. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  12. ↑ http://nrlportal.com/get-to-know-cody-walker/
  13. ↑ "Updated: Round 1 NRL team lists". NRL.com. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  14. ↑ NRL. "Late Mail: Round 1, 2016". Rabbitohs. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  15. ↑ "NRL Match Centre 2016". matchcentre.nrl.com. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  16. ↑ "Rabbitohs re-sign Cody Walker". Zero Tackle. Retrieved 2016-06-01.
  17. ↑ "Contract bungle points Bunny to Broncos". Zero Tackle. 2016-07-08. Retrieved 2016-07-12.
  18. ↑ South Sydney Rabbitohs 🐰 [@SSFCRABBITOHS] (12 July 2016). "Cody Walker dropped by Rabbitohs HQ today to put pen to paper on those next three years! #GoRabbitohs" (Tweet). Retrieved 28 February 2018 – via Twitter.
  19. ↑ "Cody Walker - Career Stats & Summary". Rugby League Project. 1990-01-10. Retrieved 2016-09-03.
  20. ↑ "2017 Auckland Nines squads: Every player named for the tournament". The Roar. 28 February 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
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