Young Brisbane Broncos dummy-half Billy Walters has confirmed that he's extended his stay at Red Hill on a two-year deal that will keep him at the club until the end of 2024, per The Daily Telegraph. The deal was initially reported back at the start of the month.
The news also follows the recent confirmation that the club had extended promising young prop Kobe Hetherington, as well as the fact Jake Turpin was leaving the club to take up a one-year deal with the Sydney Roosters.
Walters played 23 of a possible 24 games for Brisbane this season in his first year at the club since joining from Wests Tigers, where he struggled for regular first-team action.
“I'm happy with the club offering two years,” Walters, son of Broncos coach Kevin, told the Telegraph.
“I'm not old, but it's nice to secure as many years while you can. It's going to be a big two years for me to hopefully extend that for a longer period.
“I was really happy to only miss one game (in 2022). I was happy to get a full year in with no injuries.
“Until about Round 19 we were on top of the world. It was a disappointing way to end the season (but) we've still got to take the positives out of what we achieved and the potential we've shown.
“We've got a lot of young boys in the squad who will learn from this year. Hopefully we can improve on that for next year.”
Following confirmation of Turpin's departure, it's believed Walters will start the year as the club's first-choice dummy-half and is expecting to benefit from a full pre-season preparing for the role.
“Kevvie (Walters) has always been a big fan of me at nine,” Walters said.
“I told him I wanted to try for the six jersey and we'd talk about nine later. I was lucky enough to play a couple of games at the start of the year at six but didn't really cement my spot there.
“(Coach) spoke to me about moving to hooker. It was either that or go back and play Queensland Cup.
“I obviously jumped on board playing hooker. (At times) I felt like a passenger who was just there to pass. I need to be more than that if I want to be a good hooker.
“I've got a chance this pre-season to focus on the position. You have to have fitness to make a lot of tackles and then produce something in attack.
“I have to get some (stronger) combinations with the middle forward and halves. We didn't have much chance to work on our combinations during the year.”