By Matthew Sullivan

Copyright news

Walsh won the Clive Churchill Medal for his stunning performance on Sunday night.

In one of the great grand final performances, Walsh scored an inspirational individual try and save countless tries in defence.

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The Broncos defeated the Melbourne Storm 26-22 and Walsh delivered the most complete game of his career on the biggest stage as Brisbane ended a 19-year premiership drought.

Storm forward Stefano Utoikamanu lit the fuse early in grand final week when he said he was looking forward to putting some “stuck up” Broncos players in their place.

“I’m going to make sure I set up this week to get that first kick of the game – there are going to be a lot of people I want to run at, a lot of people I don’t like on this team,” Utoikamanu said last week.

“I’m keen to go out there and run someone over. I don’t want to name names – there are a lot of people I think are a bit stuck up.”

Walsh had the perfect response after beating the Storm in the decider, gathering his team around to hit back in footage posted to social media.

“Let me say something, let me say something. Boys, boys boys.” Walsh said as he had the last laugh.

“Stefano’s stuck. We’re f***ing up baby!”

Walsh also posted a photo pretending to be sad with premiership trophy with the caption: “He stuck, we up.”

Cue delirium in the Broncos changeroom, where players wore ski goggles as they popped champagne and smoked cigars in the sheds at Sydney’s Accor Stadium.

As Broncos stars channelled NBA icon Michael Jordan, Code Sports reports team staff were trying to get players to butt out the cigars, with the team facing a potential fine for smoking inside the stadium.

The Broncos headed to The Star Casino for the team after party, and were seen returning to the team hotel at 7am before flying home to Brisbane to celebrate with Broncos fans.

Walsh said he hadn’t drunk alcohol all year and he let rip with some well deserved celebrations that were documented on social media.

“I’m on top of the world right now,” Walsh told Channel 9.

“Look at the people in this room right now. This is the reason why we turn up. I’m just so grateful.

“I just needed to do my job. I cried before last week’s game. I got to the team room before our game. I saw the boys were a little nervous and that calmed me down and I knew I had to do the job for them.”

Sharing videos to his Instagram stories, Walsh showed off his premiership ring, saying: “There’s no rocks on this, only diamonds on this ring brah.”

He also posted a selfie with the caption: “I just won a comp WTF.”

At the centre of the post-match celebrations was a toilet cup Walsh has adopted after he drank water out of a toilet on the eve of finals.

After accepting the Clive Churchill Medal, he signed off his speech by declaring “plumber out” and mimicking drinking out of a toilet.

He was seen walking around the stadium with a mini white toilet, much to the delight of fans, and even got Broncos coach Michael Maguire in on the act, as they drunk out of the mini toilet cup in the changerooms.

Broncos legend Darren Lockyer and Johnathan Thurston hailed Walsh’s grand final performance as one of the greatest in rugby league history.

“It was incredible,” Lockyer told Nine’s Today.

“I’ve never seen a performance by an individual on a big stage like that ever, and I don’t think we’ll see another one for a long time.

“He had a hand in every Broncos try. He scored that incredible individual try and he saved four tries. It’s just a phenomenal performance from him. And you could see how much it meant to him.

“We talk about his flashiness and his flair. But last night he played tough and it was a complete performance, incredible.”

Walsh had a cheeky reply when he was asked to pinpoint the moment where his season turned around after battling injury and form.

“Drinking out of the toilet,” he joked.

“No, no. Mate to be honest, when I got injured I got a lot of time away from the game, away from the boys and that was from Madge.

“Telling me, when I am at home, be at home and enjoy those moments. I think at the start of the year I was so heavily invested in footy. Which is obviously a good thing.

“But sometimes it gets a little bit too much, you’re sitting up at night watching film at home and my little one is there playing and I’m on my phone looking at clips.

“To be honest I felt like it got a little bit too much for me. When I got that injury I reset, I let myself be the footy player at work.

“When I was at home I just enjoyed being dad, being a son to my old man. We got on the tools together, we were enjoying those moments.

“When I came back I sort of had the mentality of when I am in the building work hard, when I am out enjoy my time … that was probably it.”