Is Tommy Walsh
Tommy Walsh’s fine form has prompted debate about whether he should be brought back into the Kerry fold
IT was a slightly unfair scoreline to Kerins O’Rahillys with their hard graft last Sunday.
However, it’s an 11th County Final for Dr Crokes this millennium after they took some of Strand Road’s best shots and came up with clinical answers of their own in Austin Stack Park.
Gavin O’Brien didn’t take long to make an impact for the Tralee side in raising a green flag after barely 30 seconds!
A very robust game with a lot of tasty challenges and skirmishes saw Johnny Buckley yellow carded in the third minute after an incident with Jack Savage with Ryan O’Carroll black carded for O’Rahillys five minutes later.
The match was level after thirteen minutes when Kieran O’Leary made it 1-1 to 0-4, but a point from O’Brien and a free from Savage showed that Strand Road were up for the challenge.
They went behind on the scoreboard again though after a superb run by Micheál Burns for a point and a Tony Brosnan free had Crokes 0-9 to 1-4 in front after 21 minutes.
Con Barrett made a similar burst goalwards at the other end before laying off to O’Brien for an effort that Shane Murphy managed to instinctively save before Barry John
Keane put over the rebound.
The 25th minute saw O’Rahillys strike the net again, however, as Keane found O’Brien with a perfect high ball from his left-hand side and the wing-forward put O’Rahillys ahead at 2-5 to 0-10.
Buckley had to field a dropping high effort underneath the posts for the Killarney side before half-time, but O’Leary ensured it was a level match at the break at 2-5 to 0-11.
Mentors from both sides tried to grab referee Brendan Griffin’s attention as they made their way underneath the tunnel resulting in some heated jostling. Colm Cooper was introduced at the break by the defending champions, but only lasted 18 minutes on the pitch as he was black carded for taking issue with a decision by Griffin in an act of frustration.
Jack Savage had been dismissed for Strand Road in the 44th minute for a second yellow after a foul on Gavin O’Shea as an injury to Shane Murphy
DR CROKES: Shane Murphy (0-1 ‘45’); John Payne, Michael Moloney, Fionn Fitzgerald; Shane Doolan, Alan O’Sullivan, Gavin White; Johnny Buckley (0-2), Daithi Casey; Micheal Burns (0-2), Gavin O’Shea, Brian Looney (0-1); David Shaw (0-2), Kieran O’Leary (0-5), Tony Brosnan (0-6, 3f) Subs: Colm Cooper for Shaw, Jordan Kiely (2-0) for O’Shea, Michael Potts for Cooper (b/c), Johnny O’Leary for Murphy, Eoin Brosnan for Burns, Billy Courtney for T Brosnan
KERINS O’Rahillys: Gary Kissane; Cormac Coffey, Darragh McElligott, Danny O’Sullivan; Ross O’Callaghan; Shane Brosnan, Ryan Carroll; David Moran (0-2; 1 ‘45’), Con Barrett; Gavin O’Brien (2-1), Barry John Keane (0-2), Karl Mullins (0-1); Jack Savage (0-3f), Tommy Walsh (0-1), John Ferguson Subs: Tom Hoare for Carroll (b/c), John C O’Connor for Ferguson, Gearóid Savage for McElligott, Padraig Griffin for O’Brien
REFEREE: Brendan Griffin (Clounmacon)
THE excitement when it emerged that he was coming back was tangible. Even five years down the line the memory of what he was able to do in that final with Cork was still fresh in people’s minds.
He was phenomenal that day. Power and pace and football to burn, he kicked four points and looked set fair to be the future of Kerry football. The future was his for the taking. Of course, the future he took was Down Under with St Kilda – and later the Sydney Swans – in the AFL.
You can see why they wanted him in the land of Oz. There’s rarely been a better physical specimen in Gaelic games than Tommy Walsh. He had it all. Not that anybody begrudged him the chance to make a name for himself in the AFL, but the loss to his native county was considerable.
That’s why people were buzzing with excitement and practically salivating at the prospect of seeing Walsh back in the green and gold of Kerry in the winter of 2014. Already on a high from a famous All Ireland final victory over Donegal, Walsh’s return offered the prospect of further glory.
Probably people were being too romantic about the whole thing, not taking into account the effects that a series of very serious injuries had had on him. The Tommy Walsh who returned was not the Tommy Walsh who went away fresh from All Ireland glory.
In hindsight it probably would have been better to give the Strand Road man a little more time than what he got to bed in ahead of a return to the senior inter-county fold. Instead he was brought back into the Kerry panel almost immediately by Éamonn Fitzmaurice and his management team.
Alas, despite all those high hopes, it didn’t quite work out for the big man on his second coming.
He showed flashes of his old self here and there, but not often enough to command a place on the starting fifteen, not enough even to warrant being called in off the bench in the 2015 final – although, to be fair to Walsh, that was probably a mistake on Fitzmaurice’s part.
There was no great surprise when Walsh opted to walk away from the Kerry panel after the league the following season – he started just two games that campaign – but there was a wistfulness to it, a sort of deja vu for what might have been all over again.
Two years down the line, however, and people are asking