From the moment he made his debut as a fresh-faced 17-year-old for Widnes in 2017, Danny Walker has always been tipped as a future star.
His tenacity in the face of those bigger than him, in both size and reputation, caught the eye of many, while his technical ability, albeit raw, was clear to see.
The Vikings’ relegation from Super League in 2018 prompted a move to Warrington, who considered the stocky young hooker a perfect backup to their current number nine, England and Great Britain international Daryl Clark.
“He’s got similar attributes,” says Clark. “He’s quick, he’s pretty good in defence, his passing distribution’s all pretty good. I would say I was a lot smaller at the time (when he was Walker’s age).
“Unless he has a growth spurt in the next couple of years I think I’m always going to have the size on him but you never know.”
Standing at just 5 foot 7 inches, Walker follows in the footsteps of trailblazers like Rob Burrow, Luke Robinson and Brad Drew, all of whom made their names as rugby league’s ‘biggest little men’.
Not only did they share successful careers on the pitch, but they also proved plenty a naysayer wrong, breaking down the game’s stereotypes and making those who doubted their abilities look foolish.
At just 20 years-of-age, Walker has yet to experience difficulties to the same extent but that doesn’t mean to say he hasn’t struggled at times.
“Coming to the back end of last year my head was a bit all over the place,” he admits. “I wasn’t sure whether I was able to stick it with the big boys up in the top division.
Walker in action against Toronto. Credit: News Images
“There were a lot of things in my game where I thought I could really improve. One of them was my defence.
“I had a pretty serious chat with (assistant coach Andrew) Hendo (Henderson) about how I should go about my business. Then pretty much daily we were doing stuff in both attack and defence.
“There’s a fair few of the boys, Luis Johnson, Matt Davis, Ellis Robson and some of the younger lads who would help me out. They’d sprint at me at 100mph and I’d just have to deal with that.”
His defence wasn’t only improved by facing his teammates in training drills, though. As an up and coming hooker it certainly helps when you have one of the country’s best players in the position to learn from.
“Daz is pretty solid in defence and he’s quite efficient with the way he goes about things,” Walker adds. “That’s something I’ve tried to look into and figure out – how he conserves his energy every now and again to use in attack and try to light things up.
“We don’t necessarily sit down regularly and have chats about stuff to do with the hooker role, it’s more me analysing him in games and in training and seeing what things I can pick up on.”
Having been in that position himself as a youngster coming through the ranks at Castleford, Clark is more than happy to help Walker improve his game as much as he can.
All he asks, however, is that his progression isn’t too rapid.
“Hopefully he gives me a few more years then he can slowly start to take over,” laughs the 2014 Man of Steel. “But he’s got all the attributes to be a really good nine.
“We do a lot of stuff together and not even just on the field, we’re pretty good mates off the field as well.
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“To be honest his passing and kicking is just as good if not better than mine, so there’s not really too much I can teach him.
“So I’m happy with how he’s developing at the minute as long as he lets me finish my career first.”
A gradual improvement is what Walker himself is hoping for too.
As a young, enthusiastic player you could forgive the England Knights international for being naïve in how high he sets his aims, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Instead, he’s much more realistic about what he wants in the short-term.
“Since I made my debut back in 2017 I’ve been in and out every year pretty much, I’ve never had a full season.
“I’ve always had 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 games or so, I’ve never had a 20-plus game season. So hopefully this year I’ll get that under my belt and make a bigger name for myself.
“And who knows, maybe we can get a few trophies at the end of it.”
