Cody Walker has been to five preliminary finals in seven years of first grade without lifting the trophy, but he’s convinced the current Souths team is not far away from a title.
Images of a dejected Walker, who is one of the biggest competitors in the game, and his Souths teammates after a “so close yet so far” title run have become an annual event over the last half a decade.
Walker has enjoyed so much success since breaking into first grade without tasting premiership glory and the off-contract 32-year-old knows time is running out to take home the ultimate prize.
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Walker and his management are in discussions with South Sydney about an extension for his contract that expires in 2023 and the star playmaker is hopeful a deal will be announced soon.
“I think I have always been quite open with my intentions to stay at Souths,” Walker told foxsports.com.au.
“We will see how the next few days pan out and maybe an announcement in the new year. I don’t know yet we will just see what happens.
“Hopefully it gets done soon. I have always been quite open about getting a decision done before the season starts, so we will see what happens over the next couple of weeks.”
In a business where players scramble for the big long-term contracts, especially at the end of their career, it is refreshing that Walker doesn’t put much weight on the length of the deal and prefers to back his ability from season to season.
“I’ve never really been that type of player where the number of years has been an issue,” Walker said.
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“Maybe early on in my career because of my age, but I’m quite content at this stage with where I am at.”
Part of that outlook is due to the fact that Walker was a late bloomer and debuted in the NRL as a 26-year-old back in 2016.
Walker believes there is a silver lining in how long it took him to crack first grade and thinks it could help extend his career at the back end.
“I think so because I wasn’t in that grind as a 17-year-old kid,” Walker said of his potential to play well into his 30s.
“I missed that part of my career, so it probably allowed me to grow into my body a little bit more.
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“I’m not saying this for every single case across the NRL, but it allowed me to play reserve grade and grow into my body and learn my craft.
“It helped me be able to take the hits when I was able to play NRL at a later age.”
Also off-contract in 2023 is Walker’s playmaking partner and good friend away from footy Latrell Mitchell.
Walker revealed the pair haven’t discussed their contract situations in depth, but there is an unspoken bond that would love to see them play together for as long as they can.
“I think we both love playing with one another,” Walker said of Latrell.
“We have had no real in depth chats about what we want to do, but I’m sure we would love to keep playing with one another.
“It is a given in how we play and how much time we spend with each other. It is quite special.”
In 2021 Walker was considered arguably the best playmaker in the game and broke the linebreak assist record in a stunning season.
However, the departure of long-time running mate Adam Reynolds to the Broncos and the inclusion of rookie Lachlan Ilias in the team caused some growing pains for Walker and the side.
Walker admits his combination with his halfback got off to a slow start, but there were reasons why things didn’t click initially.
“Obviously we had a bit of a slow start to the season,” Walker said of his and Ilias’ combination.
“And I think that is sort of everyone included. I just thought we didn’t spend enough time in pre-season together.
“He (Ilias) was coming off a back injury. Cookie had Covid after Christmas. Latrell wasn’t training at the time.
“We just didn’t have that training time on the field together. I think that affected the way we played at the start of the year.
“That is certainly not an excuse as to why we started slow, but as the season went on, we found our rhythm and a bit of a blueprint for how we want to play and everyone had their roles and we executed it.
“We obviously fell short and in the prelim it was disappointing the way we went out, but we are certainly proud from where we were at the start of the season and turning it around and be where we were at the back end of the season. It is quite impressive.
“It is disappointing the way we ended it. But what we are working on at the moment is getting to that point again and going that step further. Probably two steps further and winning it and the work starts now.”
Souths led eventual premiers Penrith 12-0 in the preliminary final before fading in the second half to again fall at the second last hurdle.
While it has been a theme over the last half decade and most of Walker’s NRL career, he is convinced Souths are not far away from the elite teams.
“I don’t think we need to make major changes,” Walker said.
“We just need to find improvement across with board in attack and defence.
“I think there is a lot of different areas where we can improve.
“One area is our completion rates. We were down the bottom at 15th or 16th for completion rate for the season and to still be one of the last four teams in the comp at the end of the year is a pretty impressive feat.
“I think if we can improve that by five or 10 per cent it goes a long way in improving our defence and doesn’t put as much pressure on our defence because we are not doing as much of it.
“There is a lot of other areas that we can improve that is just an example and it is a big one.”
Helping Walker’s optimism for the new season has been the new crop of young talent coming through the ranks at Souths and the condition the squad is in after coming back from their break.
“There is a few young boys that have come into the group,” Walker said.
“It is impressive how a lot of the group has come back and been at a level of fitness that we have been able to put the ball in our hands a little bit earlier and work on some things.
“No one has come back too overweight and too unfit, so people have been doing stuff on their own.
“That’s an impressive part of the boys coming back fit and being able to throw the ball around earlier.
“If I was to single someone out, Tyrone Munro is a 17-year-old kid coming into first grade. He has got some wheels and he has got some footy in him. He will learn a lot from his first pre-season.
“Blake Taaffe has come in really fit and he has improved his skill and his shape out the back. He has impressed me.
“Ben Lovett is another one, who had an opportunity to play throughout the year, but injuries set him back a little bit.”
