Kennelly’s experience a huge bonus, says Walsh

TADHG KENNELLY has yet to play a game for Kerry but he is already drawing praise from Young Footballer of the Year Tommy Walsh.

The Listowel man returned to Ireland last month after a decade in the AFL and joined up with the Kerry set-up prior to the Tyrone game two weekends ago. Kennelly is expected to be named on the panel for the round three trip to Derry next Sunday week.

Walsh admitted: “It is a big boost. He has been on about coming home for years. We didn’t think it was going to happen and it was nice when it did. He’s back in training and is looking fit and it will be interesting to see how he gets on.

“He has massive experience in terms of training and, even when he comes into the dressing room, he is a character. He gets on with everyone and it is like he has been there for the last five or six years. He is coming from a totally different lifestyle where he is training two or three times a day whereas we are only doing it two or three times a week. It is good to have a guy with that experience in your squad.”

Walsh has also turned his back on Aussie Rules to further his ambitions with the Kerry seniors but his attention for the coming weeks, maybe months, will be focused on the U21 grade where the championship is now getting into full swing.

Kerry begin the defence of their All-Ireland title on March 14 with a trip to Cork, who won four Munster championships in-a-row from 2004 and added the national title to that haul in 2007.

“You couldn’t ask for a tougher game because, over the last few years they have been the most dominant team in Munster,” said Walsh. “They have been beating us nearly every year. But we have prepared well and we will hope to carry on from last year’s form.”

Walsh is one of less than half a dozen players still underage from last year’s starting 15, David Moran is another, and both will concentrate on the U21 grade until the county’s interest in the competition ends.

Walsh’s early-season form suggests there is much more to come. A tally of 1-2 in the first NFL match against Donegal was followed by a thundering display against Tyrone in Omagh which belied his absence from the scoresheet. It was an impressive marker for Kerry to lay down but one whose relevance Walsh believes will have diluted come the summer should the two counties meet again.

“If we play each other in championship, it is whoever wins that has the bragging rights. One league game doesn’t really matter.”