So he’s back for real and for good. The first impression of Tommy Walsh after his five years playing professional football in Australia is not just his golden glow, or that Michelangelo indeed could have carved out his features.
What the professional experience has also heightened is his demeanour, as Walsh attentively engages on the range of questions about his time away and what he expects on his return to Kerry. He exudes an air of confidence not normally associated with some of his amateur counterparts.
He turns 27 next month, although Walsh doesn’t appear to have aged more than a day since leaving Kerry at the end of 2009, not long after he helped them win the All-Ireland, and the year after he was named Young Footballer of the Year. Not that he’s taking anything for granted: if his five years in the AFL taught him one thing it’s that career paths don’t always go to plan.
Worry about playing
He’s already found himself an accountancy job in Cork city, starting next month, and admits it will be a new challenge trying to balance work and football, having previously only had to worry about playing. What is certain is that Walsh can’t wait to play for Kerry again – possibly as early as Sunday’s Allianz League opener against Mayo.
“I’ve come back with no regrets whatsoever about the way things went over there,” says Walsh, speaking at a Lucozade Sport event. “As much as I would have liked to play more games, I’m back to play a sport here that I love, and actually really enjoy the lifestyle here, so I certainly couldn’t see myself ever going back.
“It was when I came home, for Christmas 2013, that I first really thought about coming back, that it was probably going to be my last year in Australia. I just went along with things during the year really to see how things went, but by July or August I had made up my mind.”
Truth is, his time in the AFL – the first two years with the St Kilda club in Melbourne, the next three with the Sydney Swans – was at least partly ravaged by injury, particularly when he tore his hamstring off the bone in June 2013. In the end, Walsh only made five AFL appearances in all.
“There’s nothing I can do about that. I had been lucky up to then in my career, and even since, with injuries. You see other guys and they do their knees and shoulders and that kind of type of stuff. That’s sport, it happens.
“But it was always a year-by-year basis, for me, out there. The first year in Sydney we got to the Grand Final, which wasn’t far off. Then I did my leg, and I was determined to come back from that, and that led into the third year. There was talk of some offers from other clubs, but they weren’t concrete, and by then I’d already made up my mind I was coming back. After that it was just about getting my leg right.”
Walsh has already proved his fitness, lining out with his club Kerins O’Rahillys last weekend (against Austin Stacks) and he’s already done several training sessions with Kerry. He has little fear of the readjustment to Gaelic football, and although he started out as a specialist forward, he’ll be happy to play wherever Kerry manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice can find room for him.
“That’s entirely up to Éamonn and the lads, to see where I fit, or when I fit in, if that happens. I still have a lot of work to do in terms of touch and just getting my head back into the game, but I feel ready to play.
“It’s just about getting my touch back and my kicking as well, and hopefully that will come once the games start.
“Nothing replicates a game. You can do all the training you want but once you are in that competitive game, be it league or championship, that intensity is different to any training.
Fitter “And I suppose I feel a bit fitter than I was when I left, so whether that means I can play midfield or centre forward and move around the field a bit, again that’s completely up to Éamonn. Wherever that is, I’ll just be doing my best to contribute to the team, try help them perform as best we can.”
There is even the suggestion he might fill the full back role his father and seven-time All-Ireland winner Sean Walsh played in 1970s, having switched from midfield. Either way, While Walsh reckons his fitness levels have improved thanks to the AFL, he also sees improvements here.
“The fitness would be higher in the AFL, only because the game is pretty much twice as long, or four half-hour quarters. That took a lot of adjustment when I went over first, trimming down and get more miles into the legs, really. But Gaelic football has come on a lot in terms of sports science and professionalism in the last five years as well so I’m sure there won’t be too big of a difference once the fitness side of things really ramp up here.
“The other big difference is rest, in terms of time, because as a professional, once you finish training, you’re not getting ready for work. It’s about getting ready for the next session. Here, it’s also about preparing for work, study, or whatever. And getting the balance right. But if you can manage that, there’s no reason why a guy can’t do it as well as a professional could over in Australia, or anywhere else.”
