The Sam Walker sprays that spoke loudest as he outscored Tigers’ past five games

As Sam Walker kept shoving his next NRL contract toward the stratosphere with one of the largest point-scoring hauls in rugby league history, the little things mounted too.Walker’s 36-point tally in Thursday night’s astonishing 82-12 demolition of North Queensland was more than the Wests Tigers have collectively managed from their past five games (a miserable run of 32 points) combined.Just as fun, and far more consequential in the grand scheme of things, were two snippets in between the three tries and 12 conversions that made for a point-scoring haul that sits behind only Dave Brown (45 and 38 in 1935) and Mal Meninga’s 38 in 1990.The first was an early spray for Mark Nawaqanitawase when the freakish flyer lagged when chasing a kick into the corner.It was Walker, instead, who led the most optimistic of pursuits when the Roosters lead was just 6-0, and he made clear to Nawaqanitawase that he had missed his assignment. No-one was getting near that kick sans jetpack, but that wasn’t Walker’s point.The second came half an hour and 42 points later. Walker was denied a hat-trick on halftime by the bunker because Salesi Foketi and several teammates had ended up offside chasing a Daly Cherry-Evans bomb.Again, with a 48-6 lead, Walker was barking and cajoling his teammates, as champion No.7s do, though even some of those have been known to ease up when they’ve outscored the clock for an entire half.Most pleasingly for Trent Robinson, his side didn’t against a downtrodden Cowboys side enduring what coach Todd Payten described as “one of our darkest days”.And it was 20-year-old Foketi, 75 minutes into the first full game of his career, who ran 40 metres to shut down a rare Cowboys break when the visitors led 70-12.“The hunger,” Robinson responded when asked what he was happiest with from the Roosters rout – which ended up as the most points scored by any side in 91 years.“I said [in the dressing room], that could have easily ended up a 60-24 game, or a 60-18 – but you don’t get 80 points unless you defend the other side well.Sam Walker’s 36-point haul against North Queensland ranks as one of the biggest in rugby league history.Getty Images“When the game’s gone, how loose were we going to get? So the mindset to keep [North Queensland] to 12, I thought was very, very good.”Walker’s approach especially resembles that seen in the Origin rookies who come out of the interstate arena suddenly walking 10-foot tall. Plenty don’t. The emotional and mental comedown of your first Origin campaign is more often than not the most draining a player encounters.Walker himself said as much after his outstanding Queensland debut in game one and an underwhelming Roosters return three days later when they went down 18-4 to Melbourne.His and the Tricolours’ past month of form has been a slow boil. Thursday’s 14-try blitz was anything but, and perfectly timed as Walker’s management push for a long-term extension that won’t give change from $1.5 million a season.The Roosters have baulked at talk of a 10-year deal. But with Papua New Guinea’s tax-free incentives skewing the player market, Walker has to be locked down before November 1, when the Chiefs can come calling with a formal offer.At 24 and 103 games into a career that started with Dally M Rookie of the Year honours, Walker has matured rapidly since Queensland put their faith in him as the state’s lead playmaker.Robinson is better placed than anyone to notice the parallels too between Walker’s Origin return and how fellow free-wheeler James Maloney came back from his NSW debut in 2013.Maloney and Mitchell Pearce partnered at the Blues scrum base in a 2-1 series loss that was sealed by a galling 12-10 loss in the decider.Maloney and Pearce spoke openly of being motivated by the defeat en route to the Roosters’ premiership win – when Maloney should have won the Clive Churchill Medal.Titles aren’t won in Townsville in July – especially against a North Queensland outfit that seemingly got lost on the way to their home ground. Any concern that Roosters skipper James Tedesco watched the second half from the sheds was allayed too by news he could have played on with an ankle issue after he was caught awkwardly in a first-half tackle. Obviously, he didn’t need to.And again, Robinson noted where his side is at and where they’re headed, with pointed reference to where his star-studded side has fallen short in recent seasons.“There’s a hunger in us,” he said. “We’ve been ok in the last few years. But there’s a fire burning there to get better, and that’s simply it.“If you’re hungry, you’re going to keep hunting, and we’re going to keep doing that.”Dan Walsh is a sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.From our partners