I rang my favourite playmaker and asked how he does it. His answers shocked me

September 3, 2026 — 3:00am

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Deception: the act of making someone believe something that is not true, by hiding or distorting the truth.

Webster’s Dictionary might as well be describing the art of rugby league ballplaying right there.

When you’re holding the Steeden as a playmaker, you’re trying to make the defence think the opposite of what you’re actually going to do: they think you’re going to pass when you’re actually kicking; passing when you’re dummying and running, and so on.

Now, I never thought I would see another player like the great Cliffy Lyons. He was a pure joy to watch, and an utter nightmare to play against. So in my eyes, this is the greatest compliment I can give a player.

Cody Walker is the closest thing to Cliffy I have seen. So I rang Cody this week. Nailed him down, one old playmaker to another, and I’m still fascinated by how he approaches his craft.

For one thing, Cody doesn’t do much video work down at South Sydney headquarters. That doesn’t mean he’s not across his opposition, though. Rabbitohs assistant coach Ben Hornby prepares any specific clips the coaching staff need their chief playmaker to know about.

But Walker watches all eight games of NRL every week with his young boys at home anyway. He stores all the relevant information he needs upstairs between his ears, in his own personal Rolodex of a few thousand opposition NRL defenders.

Now a big lesson for young playmakers, and coaches at all levels for that matter, is Cody never premeditates who he’s going to pass to.

That decision is based........

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