Walker reveals Radley barb after being ‘brought back to earth’

Maroons hero Sam Walker admits he was “brought back down to earth” on Sunday, while revealing he copped a sledge from Roosters teammate Victor Radley.

Walker starred in Queensland’s 44-24 victory over NSW last Wednesday night, earning man of the match honours in just his second State of Origin game.

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The halfback had his fingerprints all over the Maroons attack, including a magical pass to set up a try that had Andrew Johns in awe on Nine’s commentary.

The 24-year-old also nailed seven goals from as many attempts, including some tough sideline conversions in front of a packed Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Speaking on Nine’s 100% Footy on Monday, Walker said he found his rhythm with the boot and revealed Johnathan Thurston played a role in the performance.

“It was awesome, it was a nice feeling,” he said.

“After the first couple of kicks, you get a pretty good feeling, it’s like a golf swing almost and you feel like you’re in rhythm and they’re coming off pretty nicely.

“It was pretty cool to hit them like that, I had a bit of experience my first couple of years at the Roosters playing at AFL grounds, we played a lot of footy at the SCG.

“I did a lot of work on our captain’s run goalkicking, spent a lot of time with Johnathan Thurston who helped me a fair bit .... I’m lucky enough it came off.”

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However, just a few days later back in club land, Walker’s radar was totally off as he missed three conversions in the Roosters’ 27-8 win over Cronulla.

“Roosters fans aren’t too happy with me,” he said with a laugh.

“Rads actually had a little word to me after the game and said ‘you couldn’t miss on Wednesday, now you wanna come back here and can’t kick a goal’.

“I’ll keep working on it, I guess it brought me back down to earth a little bit.”

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Radley played for the Blues in game two before backing up from Origin duties alongside Walker and a stack of other Roosters players in round 16.

Former NSW coach Phil Gould then gave his own cheeky message to Walker and said he “wouldn’t handle Suncorp” during the Origin decider next month.

The second-gen star was up to the task and fired back immediately.

“We’ll have too many points anyway, it won’t matter,” Walker said.

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