Kerry manager Peter Keane and Tommy Walsh following Sunday's Allianz Football League win over Galway at Tuam Stadium.
By Cian O'Connell
Surprised to get a call from new Kerry manager Peter Keane, Tommy Walsh just wants to contribute for the green and gold team again.
Four Allianz Football League Division One wins in a row ensure hope and expectation is attached to Kerry once more.
That Walsh marked his starting return to the Kerry team with a strong performance against Galway at Tuam Stadium on Sunday added to the sense of satisfaction.
While away from the inter-county arena Walsh missed playing for Kerry. "I did, yeah," Walsh admits. "You miss days like, you miss the game days.
"Having watched a lot of these guys playing together at underage level over the last few years and feeling that I could still contribute, it is hard watching so I am delighted to be back, in the mix and contributing."
Walsh, though, is adamant that it wouldn't have nagged at him if he didn't get another chance to represent Kerry. "Not particularly," Walsh says. "I was never going out with my club to try to get back in the Kerry squad. I was happy with where I was; playing good football with Strand Road and that was enough for me.
Kerry's Tommy Walsh and Galway's Sean Andy O'Ceallaigh collide at Tuam Stadium last Sunday.
"But then Peter got onto me and I was surprised to get the call, but maybe the next time they will be ringing me is to collect the footballs.
"I don’t have too many years left obviously so to get this chance is great."
The emergence of a talented crop of players offers another source of optimism according to Walsh. "Absolutely, guys like Sean O’Shea, Tom O’Sullivan, Brian Begley – these are the kind of fellas that are driving it and some of the time they are dragging the older fellas along," Walsh states.
"That is what you need and it does not matter what age you are, when you are called upon you have to be able to deliver and in fairness to those guys they really are doing that at a young age and it bodes well for the future."
How Kerry earned the full complement of the spoils in the west augurs well. "We gave away a goal at the end that we probably wouldn't be too happy with but to come back from that and to see Tomas O Se coming on and getting his point like that shows you the value of the squad," Walsh remarked. "The likes of Jonathan Lyne and Michael Geaney, they all came on and contributed.
"We are not going to get carried away or anything like that. There is a young team there with a few old fellas like myself mixed in there. It is huge for guys experience to come up here, to get games like this."
