Eager Walsh getting to grips with Sainthood

As the AFL season gets underway this weekend, former Young Footballer of the Year Tommy Walsh edges closer and closer to his St Kilda League debut. Joe Callaghan met him in Melbourne.

IT was without doubt the off-season from hell. One of Aussie Rules’ most glamorous clubs, St Kilda are rarely out of the intense spotlight in Australia’s sporting capital. But even by those standards, the past few months have been unprecedented.

The short version? It goes something like this. After ending the 2010 AFL season as bridesmaids for the second year in a row, the squad broke for the darkness of the off-season with wound-licking again top of the agenda.