Twenty-Seven Days: Sam Walker Came Back Against the Team That Injured Him, and Ended Their Season
On 29 August, the Dolphins beat the Sydney Roosters 26-12 and took their halfback’s ankle with them. Sam Walker did the syndesmosis in that game — the ligament injury that normally puts a footballer in a moon boot for months and ends a season in September.
He was back on the field 27 days later. Against the Dolphins. And he scored the try that finished them.
The comeback was a record, not just a story
Twenty-seven days from syndesmosis injury to playing a preliminary final equals the record for the fastest return from that injury. Coaches build the back half of a season around not having a player in that situation. Trent Robinson named him anyway, and Walker did not play like a man being eased back — he ran the backline for eighty minutes, then sliced through for the try that put the game beyond reach.
Sydney Roosters 36, Dolphins 20, at Suncorp Stadium, in front of a sold-out 52,286. The Roosters were 16-0 up inside 27 minutes and never really let go of it.
Nawaqanitawase had the other half of it
If Walker was the story, Mark Nawaqanitawase was the highlight reel: two tries, one of them a 90-metre intercept that took the game away from Brisbane in a single movement. Robinson, afterwards, sounded like a man who had run out of technical language for it:
“It’s incredible, to watch him play, and it’s pretty rare what he’s doing.”
Worth remembering he was a Wallaby two seasons ago. Rugby union’s loss has become, on current evidence, rugby league’s most entertaining winger.
For the Dolphins, one win short
It is easy to read 36-20 as a heavy defeat and miss what the Dolphins actually did this year. A club that played its first NRL game in 2023 finished third, won its first-ever finals match, and hosted a home preliminary final in its first finals campaign. Jamayne Isaako scored again on Friday. They were 80 minutes from a grand final in year four.
Most expansion clubs are still looking for their first finals win at that age.
What’s left
The Roosters are into their first grand final since 2019. They play the winner of Penrith v Newcastle, at Accor Stadium on Sunday 27 September, 4pm AEST.
If Penrith win it, the Roosters get a rematch of the qualifying final they lost three weeks ago. If Newcastle win it, a club that hadn’t reached a preliminary final since 2013 goes straight into a decider. Either way, the grand final is Sunday 4 October, at Accor Stadium.
