Bevan French and Jai Field at Wigan Warriors, Matt Dufty at Warrington Wolves, Jack Welsby at St Helens, Super League is full of top notch fullbacks but one of them should really be former Leeds Rhinos and Hull FC star Jack Walker who has stepped up at Hull KR.
The youngest ever Grand Final winner in 2017, Walker is an outstanding fullback who has had his career undermined by injury.
However, Hull KR gave him a Super League lifeline this year after his move to Bradford Bulls but he will not be staying at the club.
This was confirmed by Willie Peters who said: “Unfortunately we can’t have, well Jack (Walker) won’t be with our squad next year because it was always a short term deal.
“There were some early decisions made, Jack was aware of that so what we wanted to give Jack was an opportunity and I think it was a win-win. We’re bringing in a player that’s won a grand final and got to the heights he did at Leeds.
“Again, talking about injuries, he’s one that’s had his fair share of injuries; but what Jack needed to do was get his body right, and we’ve certainly helped him with that, and also get on the field which he is now.
“We’ve never, and we’ll never question Jack’s class. I think Jack’s putting himself out there and there’s no doubt, I believe, he’s a super league player and I think there’s some clubs out there that should be looking at him because he’s certainly a good player and we hopefully can see the best of him towards the back end of the year.
“But as I say, some decisions were made early and Jack knew where he stood and we’re both comfortable, we both agreed that it was going to be a short term deal and we’re seeing the best of Jack Walker now and hopefully will for the next sort of five or six weeks hopefully.”
He would implore rival clubs to take a chance on him however:
“I think at the start when he first came back there’s no doubt, I mean when we first trained here you could see that he wasn’t overly confident in his body, then he had to go in and play in the demands of Super League which, no disrespect, but it is faster than the Championship and the training loads are higher.
“He was training at a certain load and a certain intensity, and games were at a certain speed, and then he’s had to come to Super League and play at a higher intensity with training and games, so there was a little bit of a concern there from our medical team; so what we have to do is build him up.
“What we’ve done and it’s a credit to Jack he’s done the hard work and the credit to my staff as well the medical staff that have worked with him to get Jack in the condition that he’s in now. He’s playing fullback and I don’t want him to think about anything other than just doing his job and doing the best he can be, because that’s got to be behind him, although he needs to keep working hard on his body because hamstrings and soft tissues and things like that always hang around if you don’t work hard to stay on top of it.
“But certainly he’s going to be a player for the future and I hope Super League club, they will get a handy pick up if they get Jack Walker.”
