Super-fit Tommy ready to let rip
But Tommy Walsh knows his place. He’s new fish, and Eamonn Fitzmaurice carries the rod.
Like a giddy teenager, he returned to the Kerry set-up earlier in the month after five and a half years away. Thoughts of St Kilda and Sydney petered away as he ploughed back into what he knows best. “Obviously, I was very nervous because you are walking into a lot of boys you never met before. But I’ve had six or seven sessions with them so I’m enjoying being back in with them.
“There are some great characters there and they work hard and there is a good bond. I’m looking forward to gaining their trust over the next few weeks with them and moving on into the year with them.
“There might have been some guys that were 15/16 when I left. But I knew it was going to be like that when I came back. The lads there, they’re great footballers. Great workers.”
His first piece of action came in the Tralee Board final for Kerins O’Rahillys in their defeat by Kieran Donaghy’s All-Ireland-aspiring Austin Stacks last Saturday. Donaghy has actually been in the Kerry camp the last couple of weeks so it wasn’t a first re-acquaintance between the pair once dubbed the Twin Towers.
Considering Donaghy is unavailable in Fitzgerald Stadium, Walsh might just be called upon to fill his boots. If that means midfield or the half-forward line, which he indicates he would prefer, or closer to the Mayo goal, at this moment in time he doesn’t mind.
“That’s up to Eamonn and the lads to see where I fit or when I fit in. I would love to be playing but that’s up to Eamonn. I still have a lot of work to do in terms of touch and just getting my head back into the game, but I feel ready to play a game, yeah.”
Walsh, 27 next month, reckons he’s still enjoying the physical benefits of five AFL seasons in Australia. “I suppose I feel a bit fitter than I was when I left so whether that means I can play midfield or centre-forward and move around the field a bit, look that’s completely up to Eamonn and the lads as to where I fit in.”
His club manager Barry O’Shea has already told Kerry supporters to be patient with Walsh as he feels his way back into the game. The player himself isn’t too perturbed about expectations. It’s been said there would be more pressure on him had Donegal not been beaten last September; that he would then be seen as the county’s knight in shining armour. All that talk, he says, goes over his head.
“I think if I was concerning myself with outside talk, I may as well just give up now. I can’t let it affect me. You see how the lads didn’t let it affect them last year. You can’t believe everything that’s written, whether it’s good or bad, you can’t believe it. You just have to go out and be very critical of yourself and of your performances and just buy in to what the team are trying to do.
“In fairness to Eamonn, he runs a very tight setup there and it’s been very impressive over the last few weeks to see. I know that as a team, we won’t be focusing on any external talk.
“As a team, there’s going to beexpectations because Kerry are All-Ireland champions as well. You can’t get frustrated. You just have to try harder than the year before to get back there again. I know there will be expectation on me as well but I can’t get frustrated. Even though I’m in a rush to do it, I have to be patient.”
Currently in the process of relocating to Cork where he begins an accountancy job next month, Walsh has been enthused by what he’s seen of how the players have handled last year’s success.
“They have definitely put it to bed. They came back from South Africa, they really enjoyed that and it was well deserved, but from what I’ve seen over the last few weeks, they are very determined to succeed in 2015. The hunger is definitely there. There are a lot of guys that want to push on and get better and become better players. So I wouldn’t say there is any fear of complacency, now you won’t know until start playing but from what I’ve seen, I wouldn’t fear that.”
