May 15th, 2019

May 15th, 2019

DYLAN Walker will be public enemy number one at Shark Park on Sunday - but it will have little to do with his recent court case.

The Manly star makes his return to the game after being cleared by the legal system of assaulting his partner - and Cronulla players will be gunning for him.

But the Sharks’ beef isn’t the court case, their anger stems back to an incident when the teams met two years ago.

Walker broke the jaw of young Sharks hooker Jayden Brailey - albeit accidentaly in a tackle - but it is what happened next that enraged the Cronulla players.

As Brailey was led from the field with blood pouring from his mouth and in a dazed state, Walker sledged him with a torrent of abuse.

Dylan Walker. (AAP)

The spray was captured by sidelines microphones - and hasn’t been forgotten by Sharks players or fans.

In his defence, Walker said he did not realise how badly Brailey was injured at the time.

"I look back now and think I could have handled it better," Walker said later.

"I thought he was just going off (the field) and I said what I said. It was the heat of the moment "I didn't know I'd done major damage to him. I gave him a gobful because I'd seen him run off the field.

"He's a good player. I rate him highly and that's why I got into him.

"I wanted to test him mentally because first year at hooker is hard.

"But I'm not a doctor. I didn't know he'd broken his jaw."

None of this will matter to the Sharks players or fans, however, who will give Walker a torried ‘wecome’ back to the game on Sunday.