Walsh faces club versus country dilemma

CLUB commitments may prevent Cork midfielder Aidan Walsh from securing a spot in the Ireland International Rules squad that travel to Australia next month.

Walsh is currently part of Anthony Tohill’s 30-man training panel along with Cork teammates Patrick Kelly and Eoin Cadogan, but his challenge to claim one of the places on the final 23-man selection could create a dilemma for the 2010 Young Player of the Year.

Walsh’s club Kanturk last Saturday qualified for the county stages of the Cork junior football championship with a quarter-final date pencilled in for Tuesday night. And Walsh, who is also preparing for a county senior hurling final date with third-level outfit CIT on Sunday week, is aware of a potential fixtures clash if they keep progressing.

“There’s 30 of us in there at the moment and I’ve been up to the training sessions in Parnell Park in Dublin over the last few weeks. They’re only taking 23 players to Australia and I’d love to get a place on that panel. But it’s hard to fit everything in and I’ve just been trying to juggle things around. The club are going well in the junior football, it was great to win the Duhallow title last Sunday. Hopefully everything will fall into place but I’ll just have to see how it goes. Playing with your country is a great honour and something I’d love to do.”

Walsh paid tribute to Dublin’s victory in Sunday’s All-Ireland final and revealed that watching the footage of their post-match celebrations has fuelled his desire to get back preparing for the 2012 campaign.

“I watched the match on Sunday, I suppose I was in good enough form after winning the Duhallow final on Saturday. In fairness, Dublin have learned a lot and they showed that. Fair play to them. Ourselves, Kerry and Dublin are probably the three main teams in the country now. We’re just looking forward to next year. Watching the celebrations after the game brought back memories of last year. It makes you hungry for next year and talking to the lads, I think everyone is looking forward to putting the head down again.”

Meanwhile another former Young Footballer of the Year, Tommy Walsh, has handed Kerins O’Rahilly’s Kerry championship ambitions a major boost by returning to line out for the Strand Road club over the coming weeks. Walsh, who is contracted to AFL outfit St Kilda, is back in Ireland for the next six weeks and is in contention to play for his home club in their Kerry Division 1 County League game against An Ghaeltacht this weekend. He will also be available for two forthcoming key ties with Kerins O’Rahilly’s when they face Laune Rangers in the semi-final of the Kerry club championship on Saturday October 1 in Fitzgerald Stadium, and then play West Kerry in the quarter-final of the Kerry County Championship on Saturday October 8 in Austin Stack Park.

“It’s a massive help to us to have Tommy back,” admitted Kerins O’Rahilly’s chairman Sean Kissane. “Especially when you consider earlier on in the year what a big setback it was when David Moran got injured earlier on in the year and was ruled out. We’re delighted to have Tommy back.”