Walsh set to make big mark on AFL

FORMER Young Footballer of the Year Tommy Walsh is winning over AFL fans without having played a competitive game in Australia.

Walsh, who signed for Melbourne outfit St Kilda last year, has shown impressive form in training and the Kerry man’s potential has become a hot topic of conversation on the club’s web forum.

The thread, entitled ‘interesting stuff re; Tommy Walsh’ is started by a poster saying that the Kerins O’Rahillys forward had been “putting smiles on the faces of our coaches lately” before adding:

“Apparently in some match simulation during the week, he took a huge hanger over Kosi (St Kilda star Justin Koschitzke), hit the ground running and nailed a goal, straight through the middle from around the 60 metre mark!!! Jaws dropped in disbelief and then excitement. Wants the physical stuff – crashing into bodies, throwing big tackles, loving it apparently. It seems the club is now keen for him to be on the main list. He is progressing very quickly, and impressing everyone at the club. Excitement is growing at what we have got hold of.”

Another poster claims that club chairman, Greg Westaway, told him about Walsh’s remarkable feats, although the mark over Koschitzke and the 60-metre goal took place during his initial trial.

Another says that one of the players, Nick Dal Santo, described Walsh as “a freak” after that particular trial.

Some cold water is poured on the increasing hype by the revelation that Walsh, who will wear No.37, had finished second last in a repeat running exercise, and that he would need time to hit the required fitness levels, but that remains a rare negative point.

“There is no doubt he has gone past initial expectations,” wrote ‘yipper’, who started the thread. “His love of the physical stuff is particularly appealing. He is taking to this game of ours very quickly. The other thing is he has apparently got big hands which is really helping him to master the art of marking an AFL football.

“And he is a very strong man as well as athletic. So rest assured he is ticking off all the boxes at the club at the moment.”

It is at this point, that Walsh begins to be accorded near-iconic status, prompting a response that has been unknown for any other Irish recruit since Jim Stynes and Seán Wight tried their luck Down Under in 1984.