Reece Walsh
The Player and the Pressure: An Unflinching Account of Talent, Trouble, and Triumph in the NRLBy Gerald A. Lewis
Length43m
About this audiobook
He scored two tries in his first Test for Australia and finished it as Man of the Match. He also signed off his Clive Churchill Medal speech with a joke about drinking from a toilet — because by then, the whole country had already seen the video.
Reece Walsh is one of the most electrifying players rugby league has produced in a generation, and one of its most talked-about. By the time he was old enough to legally buy a drink, he had already been fined and suspended for a cocaine charge outside a Gold Coast nightclub, sent off in a State of Origin decider, and investigated by the NRL more than once. By the time he was twenty-three, he had also won a premiership, a Clive Churchill Medal, two Origin series, and a Test cap for Australia — with a highlight reel to match.
This book follows that career from the beginning: a childhood in Nerang on Queensland's Gold Coast, raised by an Indigenous Australian father and connected to a Māori family across the Tasman; the junior representative honours that came almost too fast; a teenage move from the Brisbane Broncos to the New Zealand Warriors before he'd played a single first-grade game for either; an NRL debut at eighteen against the reigning benchmark club; and the string of headlines, on and off the field, that followed him through two Grand Finals, two State of Origin series wins, and a Kangaroos debut good enough to win Man of the Match.
It doesn't try to smooth over the parts of that story that are unflattering. Walsh has been fined by the judiciary, suspended by his club, and investigated by the NRL integrity unit more than once — and those episodes sit in these pages alongside the tries, the medals, and the premiership, because leaving either half out would misrepresent both the player and the pressure that came with being one of the most watched young athletes in Australian sport.
What emerges is not a simple redemption arc and not a cautionary tale — it's both, running side by side, season after season. A cocaine charge at nineteen. A Clive Churchill Medal at twenty-three. A viral toilet video and a premiership-winning performance in the same fortnight. Reece Walsh's career resists the easy version of his own story, and this book doesn't try to force one on it.
For readers of NRL and rugby league biography, State of Origin history, and the modern athlete's collision with fame, scrutiny, and social media, this is the fullest account yet of a player whose talent was never in question — and whose story is still being written.
Audiobook details
GenreBiography and Memoir, Other
Length43 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
2Chapter 1: Nerang
3Chapter 2: The Representative Years
4Chapter 3: Chasing Bigger Opportunities
5Chapter 4: A Debut and a Near-Miss
Show all chaptersShow less
6Chapter 5: Making Headlines
7Chapter 6: Setbacks and Personal Challenges
8Chapter 7: A Fresh Beginning
9Chapter 8: A Series, a Send-Off, and a Grand Final
10Chapter 9: Representing Queensland
11Chapter 10: Wearing Australia’s Colours
12Chapter 11: Handling Fame
13Chapter 12: Senior Player
14Chapter 13: Family
15Chapter 14: Overcoming Criticism
16Chapter 15: The Evolution of His Game
17Chapter 16: A Premiership and a Drought Ended
18Chapter 17: Looking Toward the Future
19Conclusion
More from Gerald A. Lewis
STUCK BETWEEN STATIONSGerald A. Lewis2h 8m$6
Five Dollars And Fifty CentsGerald A. Lewis4h 5m$5
PECCOGerald A. Lewis1h 6m$5
UNCLE CLAYGerald A. Lewis2h 25m$6.50
THE LONG SLEEVESGerald A. Lewis3h 7m$6.50 · $0.00
ALLISON MACKGerald A. Lewis36m$6.50 · $0.00
THE LEDGERGerald A. Lewis3h 21m$6.50 · $0.00
SUSIE WOLFFGerald A. Lewis39m$6.50 · $0.00
Doris Kearns GoodwinGerald A. Lewis4h 17m$6.50 · $0.00
FUNNIEST CHAPTER YETGerald A. Lewis2h 43m$6.50 · $0.00
Peter magyarGerald A. Lewis1h 16m$6.50 · $0.00
BEYOND THE FRETBOARDGerald A. Lewis4h 42m$6.50 · $0.00
HANK WILLIAMS BIOGRAPHYGerald A. Lewis4h 46m$6.50 · $0.00
Ulysses S. Grant: Life of the Fearless General & Commander-in-Chief (Complete Edition - Volumes 1&2)Ulysses S. Grant30h 44m$0.99 · $0.00
Left for DeadEbony Canion5h 34m$17
John Muir: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth & Letters to a Friend (Annotated)John Muir10h 13m$0.99 · $0.00
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m$24 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m$29 · $0.00
A Bridge Not Too FarDeepak Ohri4h 55m$15
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m5.0 (1)$24 · $0.00
A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings With George Müller (The Complete Four-Volume Edition)George Müller43h 37m$2 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m5.0 (2)$29 · $0.00
Scandal Between the Sheets & Stranded with the Tempting StrangerBrenda Jackson9h 22m$24 · $0.00
The complete novelsJane Austen73h 18m$3.50 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m5.0 (1)$20 · $0.00
The Boys and MeMark Miller8h 32m$23
The King James Bible (Annotated)Various Authors83h 36m$2 · $0.00
The Holy Bible - 1 SamuelKing James2h 13m3.0 (1)$3 · $0.00
KJV Holy BibleBroadStreet Publishing Group LLC96h 16m$10 · $0.00
Book of ColossiansUnknown Author16m$8
The American Standard Bible — The Gospel of MatthewMatthew3h 56m$2 · $0.00
Everyday Chanakya | Time Management S01E08Radhakrishnan Pillai42m$4
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m$24 · $0.00
The King James Audio Bible New Testament CompleteChristopher Glyn20h 2m5.0 (1)$12 · $0.00
Faiths CheckbookCharles Spurgeon12h 44m$11 · $0.00
Be Wild Be FreeAmber Fossey26m$7 · $0.00
Ten Things I Wish You Knew About Your Child's Mental HealthDr. Billy Garvey4h 53m$20 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m$20 · $0.00
The Chosen Book OneAmanda Jenkins, Kristen Hendricks, Dallas Jenkins3h 8m$10 · $0.00
The Lives of BrianBrian Johnson9h 45m$29 · $0.00
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the HorseCharlie Mackesy58m$11 · $0.00
Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of LukeJ.C. Ryle27h 13m$18 · $0.00
CrossroadsKaleb Dahlgren7h 56m$26 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m$29 · $0.00
Brain Training for RidersAndrea Monsarrat Waldo5h 56m$19 · $0.00
My Effin' LifeGeddy Lee17h 11m5.0 (1)$40 · $0.00
You may also like
Guys Read: The ChoiceJames Brown28m$7 · $0.00
HARRY KANEBetty S. Keating46m$7.50 · $0.00
IgniteAndre De Grasse, Dan Robson8h 37m$26 · $0.00
The Young PitcherZane Grey6h 2m$1.80 · $0.00
The Efficiency ExpertEdgar Rice Burroughs5h 16m$2 · $0.00
Eve's RansomGeorge Gissing6h 16m$2.30 · $0.00
Quintus ServintonHenry Savery21h 48m$1 · $0.00
ALEX ALBONArthur Payne1h 59m$6.50 · $0.00
The Compleat Gentleman, Third Revised EditionBrad Miner8h 54m$20
The Young PitcherZane Grey5h 44m$17
Post Office on the TokaidoGreta Gorsuch1h 9m$5 · $0.00
BradyBrian Boone2h 47m$15
Life in Lashes: The Story of a Drag SuperstarKita Mean6h 51m$24 · $0.00
The Do-OverSuzanne Park9h 24m$29 · $0.00
Curiosities of Human NatureSamuel G. Goodrich7h 46m$2.30
The royal banner : or, Gold and rubiesM. H.3h 14m$2 · $0.00
Ash Barty: ChampionAsh Barty4h 38m$20 · $0.00
My Dream TimeAsh Barty9h 14m$29 · $0.00
JourneymanMarc Bojanowski7h 35m$17
Harry Sylvester BirdChinelo Okparanta9h 44m$29 · $0.00