Bellamy gave Billy Walters faith to play Broncos No.9

Joel Gould | September 6, 2023

Kevin Walters once asked Craig Bellamy if his son Billy had the capacity to be a NRL No.9 and the answer was affirmative.

That was a huge boost in confidence for 29-year-old Billy Walters who will play his first NRL final on Friday night for Brisbane against Melbourne at Suncorp Stadium.

Walters spent two seasons at the Storm under Bellamy in 2018 and 2019 where he mostly played halves in the Queensland Cup for Easts.

In the past two seasons Walters has focused on his dummy-half play at the Broncos and has had an outstanding 2023 season. He said when he was at the Storm he “didn’t quite apply myself to nine as much as I could have”.

His father Kevin, who had been a Storm assistant previously, told him how he had approached Bellamy for advice about playing him as a regular NRL hooker.

“He told me that Craig had a lot of wraps about how I could play nine,” Walters said.

“It showed confidence that someone like Craig Bellamy thought I could play NRL at nine. I just had to nail it.

“Craig will go down as one of the greatest coaches of all time … so for him to do that and think that, it showed that I had the skill to do it.

“I just had to apply myself and work a bit harder in the gym, on my fitness and defence. I get big (Broncos prop) Corey Jensen to run at me 10 times after every captain’s run to try and help my defence.”

Walters got an understanding when he was in Melbourne of why the Storm have beaten the Broncos in their last 14 games, and have not lost at Suncorp Stadium to Brisbane since 2009.

“Yeah, it didn’t just come from Craig. It came from the whole playing group. Everyone just wanted to beat the Broncos and I feel like that is one of the curses of being a big club everyone wants to beat,” he said.

“I remember being down there (at Melbourne) and part of that crew as a Brisbane boy that wasn’t playing for the Broncos, so you loved to beat the Broncos.”

Walters, who can expect Bellamy to have plans to nullify his effectiveness, said the Storm would not beat themselves on Friday night. The Broncos must get everything right to win.

“They will have a lot of confidence that they have the wood over us but we will be out there Friday to break that drought,” Walters said.