Donnchadh Walsh looking forward to tilt with ‘best team in land’

Donnchadh Walsh doesn’t see Kerry-Dublin as a rivalry, strictly speaking. The two teams have a long and fabled history, but are they current rivals?

“Well, a rivalry is where teams beat each other, and they’re beating us at the moment,” says the Kerry wing-forward.

“We haven’t beaten them in a long time, so it’s not really a rivalry if we don’t start beating them.”

For all that a win isn’t paramount for Walsh next weekend compared to a good performance against a team that are “a different proposition” in Croke Park.

“I don’t think it’s [a win] hugely important, the performance is important. A 70-minute performance in Croke Park is important for us.

“Dublin are used to playing there, it’s where they play most of their games; they’re a different proposition there.”

Kerry have the league clash in Tralee to learn from. We were very disappointed in the immediate aftermath of that game that we didn’t see it out,” says Walsh.

“Then, looking back on it again, we said there were a lot of positives to be taken from it.

“But you could see the following week we didn’t back it up with a performance in Cavan. That Dublin game, we raised it and it probably took it out of us physically and mentally, and it was hard to raise it the following week and we didn’t get the result we needed against Cavan.

“That meant we put ourselves under pressure last Sunday [against Tyrone], which was a bit annoying, but now we have another chance against Dublin, in Croke Park again. We want to pit ourselves against the best and Dublin are the best at the moment.

“It’s going to be a totally different game, playing on a Sunday afternoon in Croke Park compared to Saturday night under lights in Austin Stack Park.

"Going into this game we’ll probably have material from three weeks previous in terms of information on how teams may line up.

"Without doubt, it’ll have a bit of edge, without doubt it’ll have quality, without doubt it’ll have physicality. But it’s brilliant, we have such a long break between league and championship I’m delighted to have the league final.

"It prolongs the league for just one week, with no semi-finals, so we’re delighted to pit ourselves against the best, and Dublin are the best.”

Last Sunday there “could have been a lot of outcomes”, as Walsh says, but a comfortable win over Tyrone got Kerry to the decider: “Kerry-Tyrone is always a good gauge of where you are at this time of the year, so we wanted to put ourselves up against Tyrone and test ourselves, to beat them, and after that it was about winning as well as we could. If other results went our way we might get into a league final.

“Funnily enough, over the last few years results on the last day of the league have gone our way. From being saved from relegation to making league semi-finals, we’ve just gotten the rub of the green, and it worked out for us again Sunday.”

Walsh hit an impressive six points from play, but he shared the credit for his display with the newcomers to the panel particularly.

“Obviously I’m happy with that, it’s not like I go out every day and try not to score, I try to contribute to the scoreboard, some days it doesn’t happen for me and other days it does.

"Sunday a ball came off the post and I followed in, you might do it a couple of hundred times and it doesn’t work for you, this time it did. Things came off for me Sunday but I always like to contribute on the scoreboard.

“There was a summer feel to the day, the clocks have changed and we’re back training in Killarney this week, so the summer is upon us.

"It’s brilliant, those fellas - Ronan Shanahan has nailed down a spot since the Mayo game, Jack Barry, Jack Savage, even though those fellas are mid-20s now, they’re well experienced with their clubs but they add a freshness to it.

"We’re keeping a close eye on the U21s as well, how well they did in the Munster final against Cork and they’ll be keeping an eye on us too. When they come into the set up nearer the summer it’ll add to it even more.”