Sam Walker’s Camp to Meet the Rabbitohs as Souths Star Campbell Graham Says “I’d Like to Have Him”
Sam Walker’s management will meet South Sydney after a third party told the Rabbitohs the Roosters halfback would consider joining them, CODE Sports reported on Monday. Souths are the Roosters’ fiercest rivals.
One Rabbitohs player has already made up his mind. “Obviously he’s a great player, and he just won a comp,” Campbell Graham told SEN. “I like the way he plays his footy, so I’d like to have him on my team.”
Graham wants him alongside Cody Walker
Graham said he only heard about the talks on his way to the studio. “It would be pretty cool to see them together; they’re both kind of ad-lib instinctive players,” he said. “I think he could slot in nicely with our brand of attacking footy.”
Souths have just signed Payne Haas from Brisbane, and Haas did his first interview in red and green on the same day.
The problem is the money
Wayne Bennett played the idea down when Walker was first linked to Souths last month. “Look, we can’t afford Sam Walker,” he told CODE. “We’ve got a salary cap like everyone else and we would have to let a player go to fit Sam Walker in and we’re not going to do that.”
NRL reporter Michael Carayannis said on SEN that 2027 was unlikely but 2028 was possible, because Latrell Mitchell, Graham and Jack Wighton are big earners without deals beyond next season.
Roosters to Rabbitohs has happened before
Latrell Mitchell left Bondi for Souths in 2020, the year after a Roosters premiership. Luke Keary and Angus Crichton went the other way and won titles at the Roosters.
The Roosters said on 26 October that their offer beyond 2027 had been withdrawn “after the parties were unable to reach an agreement on terms”. Trent Robinson has since said there is no way back, and our story on Robinson and Walker covers how it ended. Walker is contracted at Bondi until the end of 2027.
Union and PNG are still options
Walker’s manager Clinton Schifcofske has said Walker would not rule out a switch to rugby union and the Wallabies, and PNG Chiefs coach Willie Peters told the Sydney Morning Herald Walker would be “someone we look at”. “Sam wants to wait until after the World Cup to work out what he wants to do,” Schifcofske said. Walker is among the Kangaroos reserves before Sunday’s final against New Zealand.
