Footy family gets behind celebrated coach after cancer diagnosis

The north Queensland rugby league community is rallying behind a long-time volunteer and former Queensland Rugby League and NRL employee and his family after a devastating cancer diagnosis.

Richard ‘Dick’ Walsh, who has played a pivotal role in the development of talented players across the North region, was informed he had incurable colon cancer in March.

Walsh’s eldest daughter Caitlin, one of five children, last week launched a fundraiser to help the family cover costs associated with palliative care and to allow the loving husband, dad and poppy to live his best life – including trying to make his dream road trip a reality.

More than $6000 has been raised one week into the fundraising campaign for a strong, proud man who “would give the shirt off his back to anyone”.

“Anyone who knows my Dad knows that he isn't one to shy away from a fight and he will fight this the best he can,” Caitlin said in a GoFundMe post.

QRL state strategy manager Scott Nosworthy, who worked for many years in the early 2010s alongside Walsh in the QRL North regional office, described Walsh as a typical Aussie battler who prioritised his family while managing to be generous to everyone he came across.

“He was a good employee for the game, is a good mate who will do anything to help you, but importantly he is a great family man,” Nosworthy said.

“He’ll take the battle on. He’ll fight it as hard as he can for as long as he can.”

While not involved in rugby league in recent years, Nosworthy said Walsh had always been an astute observer of the game and had a knack for getting the best out of players, especially young men.

“As a coach he was pretty calm and collected. He thought a lot about the game and was very well planned. Anything he did was very well orchestrated. We always had him around our rep programs. He was very well respected,” Nosworthy said.

Walsh, originally from Cobar in NSW, was himself a talented player who reached statewide competition level with Ipswich before he made the move north. His grassroots volunteer roles have included football manager at Souths Mackay, coaching at Sarina and at Townsville club Centrals.

One of Walsh’s crowning achievements in rugby league was coaching of the under 18 national champion Townsville Stingers in 2015, a team skippered by North Queensland Cowboys forward Mitch Dunn and featuring Cairns-born Newcastle Knights outside back Enari Tuala.

He backed it up coaching the 2016 Townsville under 18s, featuring Canberra Raiders middle forward Corey Horsburgh, to the national final once again.

Walsh, who this week started a six-week round of chemotherapy, said telling his family of the diagnosis was one of the hardest things he ever had to do, and urged others to learn from his experience.

“If I've learnt anything in the last six weeks, it's to listen to your body and when your body is telling you that something isn't right then do something or see someone about it,” Walsh said.

“I thought that because I hadn't seen a doctor in over a decade then that was a sign of good health. I now know this couldn't be further from the truth.”

Anyone who would like to support the Walsh family can donate here.