Walsh’s seamless return buoys Kingdom

Eamonn Fitzmaurice admits he’s been "pleasantly surprised" by Tommy Walsh since his return to the Kerry fold last month.

Walsh starts alongside his Kerins O’Rahillys club-mate David Moran in midfield in Celtic Park tomorrow afternoon. After impressing coming on as a half-time substitute, catching three kick-outs, Fitzmaurice’s decision was made easier.

“I think Tommy did well last weekend when he came into the game. He’s understandably anxious to get stuck back into it and we tried him from the bench last weekend, we’re giving him a go at starting this weekend.

“Like I said already, with Tommy, we’re going to be patient. I’m pleasantly surprised with the progress he’s making already and so he’s doing well for us. He deserves a cut at it this weekend, going up to Derry a tough away game, it’ll probably be a physical battle and Tommy will certainly be an asset to us in that regard.”

Fitzmaurice travels north with his men believing six points mightn’t be enough to save teams from the drop to Division 2. A second defeat on the bounce and they may find themselves in the same catch-up quandary as the last two seasons.

“We’ve seen over the last few years that six points kept us up. That mightn’t be enough this year, you just don’t know because it’s such a competitive league, all teams will take points off each other. So any time you get two points on the board they’re going to be hard-earned, and you’re going to appreciate them.

“So going up there this weekend, away from home, anytime you get a win on the road is good for morale. It’s hard to do it in the league so if you were to give me two points, I’d take them and I’d bite your hand off, I’d be very happy with them.”

Fitzmaurice says he expects a reaction from some of his players who were individually “disappointed with the way they performed last weekend”.

That said, he wasn’t too despondent with the team’s performance. “I think during Sunday and Monday when we were analysing the game ourselves as management, Diarmuid (Murphy) put it very well when he said there was more perspiration than inspiration and I think that kind of summed up last weekend well.”

The game saw Evan Regan replaced by Michael Conroy as a temporary substitute even though Regan was hospitalised and didn’t return to the game. Fitzmaurice suggest the blood sub rule should be changed to incorporate a time limit.

“I suppose there’s a loophole there, and like any loophole, it can be exploited. I think Evan Regan got injured, it was a bad injury but there was also blood involved, so the rule can be exploited in that regard.

“Maybe you could tighten that if a fellow goes off in the first half, if he hasn’t come back on by half-time it’s a permanent substitution. Maybe you should put some sort of a time limit on it, but when there’s a loophole there players and management are always going to push the envelope if they can so it’s within the rules and there’s isn’t much you can do about it. Technically, Mayo were within the rules so what can you say about it.”

Much has been made of Kerry’s rustiness last Sunday. That they were only back from South Africa. That they had only just begun. That Mayo had a few weeks on them.

David Moran isn’t keen on citing mitigating factors for the seven-point reverse, which could have been considerably heavier had Mikey Sweeney’s ball across an open Kerry goal been met in the closing stages.

“They are definitely ahead of us in their development,” he says of Mayo, “but if you take, was it two years ago, we went up to Castlebar and they were just back from a team holiday. We were flat-out training and yet they put us to the sword.

“We were left scratching our heads, so sometimes it doesn’t always work like that. In this game I think it did, in terms of the work they have done, it was probably a bit too much for us.”

After a third opening Division 1 defeat under Fitzmaurice, Moran hopes it isn’t the beginning of another chequered campaign. ”I know last year was a bit unusual, in the sense that we struggled through the league and then went on to win the All-Ireland. But if you look back over the last 10 years, the likes of Tyrone, ourselves, Dublin, usually a team that does well in the league goes on to do well in the championship.

“The last thing we want is to be kind of stuttering along in the league and trying just to stay up, trying to start from scratch then before the first round of the Munster championship.”