Souths star Cody Walker is hoping to use his role with the Indigenous All Stars as a stepping stone to a potential coaching career after he retires from rugby league.
Walker will coach as well as play for the Indigenous All Stars in their clash with the Maori All Stars and he wouldn’t rule out coaching in the NRL when he hangs up the boots.
“Yeah I think so, it is something that interests me in the future,” Walker told foxsports.com.au.
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“I’m getting my coach’s course and it is something that hopefully I can fall into after I retire.
“I like the idea and the challenge of breaking down teams and coming up with game plans and putting them into fruition on the training park, but also seeing them come to life in a footy game.
“It is quite exciting and I just love being a part of that.”
Walker has been revelling in working with Souths’ young core of talented playmakers and enjoys the challenge of helping other players around him get better.
“100 per cent I enjoy sharing a bit of my knowledge with the younger boys at Souths coming through,” Walker said.
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“We have got a great group of young boys this year.
“Lachie (Ilias) had a fantastic year in his first year. We have also got Deano (Hawkins), who played a fair bit of footy last year. Jye Gray has come to the club this year as a development player and he is an exciting young talent, so we have got some fair skill in the halves.”
One key area that comes with coaching is selection and Walker was jokingly criticised by Alex Johnston for overlooking his club teammate for the 2023 Indigenous All Stars team.
Walker was hopeful if any players pulled out that Johnston would be next cab off the rank.
“I hope so,” Walker said with a laugh.
“I’m obviously disappointed he didn’t make it. He’s our right-hand man and he finishes off a lot of our tries, so hopefully he can get a call-up if needed.”
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Coaching might be in his future, but Walker has plenty still to do on the playing field after signing an extension through until the end of 2025 at Souths and he revealed he could end up playing on past his 35th birthday.
“I wouldn’t be writing me off too soon,” Walker said.
“Everyone knows how much I love representing this club and being part of the local community, so it was quite an easy decision for me to recommit to the club and sign for a few more years.”
Walker debuted in 2016 and has made at least the preliminary final in five of his seven seasons, including a grand final in 2021.
The drive amongst the whole squad to break their title curse burns brighter than ever for Walker and his teammates heading into 2023.
“There is not one person in the organisation who is not chasing improvement on what we have been able to achieve the last couple of years.
“It has been an amazing achievement to make five prelims in a row, but at the end of the day we haven’t got the job done and that’s just not good enough.
“We are always striving to improve five to 10 per cent on what we did last year and it starts in the pre-season and that’s what we have been able to do and we’ve worked really hard.”
South Sydney has one of the biggest supporter bases in the NRL and Walker learned just how much the club means to the fans during a unique pre-season expedition.
“We took a lot of our history from Souths in Redfern and took it around to junior clubs around South Sydney,” Walker said.
“I think we walked over 30km and stopped at different junior clubs along the way.
“We heard a couple of stories about how much South Sydney meant to some of the past players and the local juniors of South Sydney.
“I thought it was quite a special thing to hear some of those stories and how much Souths means to the local community.”
Now a veteran of 169 games for the Rabbitohs, Walker has achieve so much in rugby league, but bringing a title back to the Souths’ fans is his number one mission for the remainder of his career.
“That is the ultimate goal is to bring a premiership back to Redfern and the local community,” Walker said.
“It is pretty special to put the colours on each and every week, but it will be even more special lifting the trophy at the end of the year.”
