Tommy Walsh when he was playing with St Kilda affiliate, Sandringham in 2010.
WHEN the news came through on Wednesday morning that Tommy Walsh was coming back to Ireland, none were more happy than the people at Kerins O’Rahillys club.
Tommy, who left in 2009, is now 26 and coming into the prime of his playing career. The return of one of the Blues’ most high profile players is a massive boost for a team that lost so many to emigration this summer.
Walsh’s return will be a great incentive for those players to stay on next year and have a crack at a county title.
“It’s brilliant news for the club to have him back,” said Kerins O’Rahilly’s chairman, Frank O’Connor.
“Tommy will be a major addition to our team in the championship. We’ll have himself, David Moran and Barry John Keane as the backbone of the side. It will be marvellous to have that amount of talent,” said Frank.
Though the official announcement of the big man’s return was made yesterday, Tommy is not expected to be home until just before Christmas as he plans to do a bit of travelling.
“We’re over the moon,” said Breda Dyland, P.R.O of Kerins O’Rahillys. “If we could have him back tomorrow we’d take him. We’ll find a spot in the team for him alright!”
While in Australia Tommy played his AFL football with two clubs, St Kilda of Melbourne and the Sydney Swans. It was an unlucky break for him that in three out of five years he spent down under, a team he was playing with got to the AFL Grand Final, which made it particularly difficult for him to break into any of the sides.
Disaster strikes in 2013. Tommy Walsh is helped off the field after tearing his hamstring for Sydney Swans.
Early in 2013 season, Tommy actually managed to get himself into a good position to nail down a place in the Swans first team, but disaster struck when he tore his hamstring from the bone in an injury that brought his second year in Sydney to an abrupt end.
A lot has changed in the Kerry set-up since Tommy left the scene in 2009. Gone is his club-mate, Micheal Quirke and other Kerry Legends, Darragh O’Se, Tomas O’Se, Paul Galvin, Diarmuid Murphy and Tom O’Sullivan.
In his final game in green and gold with those players, he kicked four points and played a starring role in the 2009 final against Cork. With an All-Ireland medal in his back pocket he left for Australia shortly after, with his good friend David Moran.
David came back and tagged on another All-Ireland. No doubt Tommy will have All-Ireland glory on his mind once again when he returns.
• Just to refresh your memory, here is a fantastic solo goal he scored against Cork in the 2008 All-Ireland semi-final.
