Fully focused on staking a claim on home front

INTERVIEW KERRY'S BARRY JOHN WALSH: WITH TOMMY Walsh in line for his first competitive start with St Kilda in Saturday's Australian Rules pre-season tournament, the NAB Cup, younger brother Barry John is insisting his sole focus is on club and county football with Kerry – and that there aren't Australian recruiting agents sniffing around him. Not yet anyway.

“No, not really,” says Walsh, with a wry smile. “I’m just fully focused on playing for my club and Kerry, under-21s and seniors, and that’s my goal for the year. We actually played Cork last year in the under-21s and they gave us a small bit of a lesson. They beat us well so we’ll be hoping for revenge this year in Tralee.”

Having just turned 20, Barry John is eligible to play for two more years in the under-21 grade, and Kerry get that campaign under way on March 13th against reigning All-Ireland champions Cork.

The elder Walsh brother left for Australia last November having secured a two-year rookie deal with Kilda, and if things go to plan, will play some role in Saturday’s round-two NAB Cup clash against Sydney Swans, who now feature his All-Ireland winning team-mate, Tadhg Kennelly.

“I talk to Tommy quite a bit, yeah,” says Barry John. “It was very disappointing to see him go both from the Kerry point of view, and the more so our club, Kerins O’Rahillys. Clubs feel the loss of a county player a lot more if they do go. I think with him leaving someone else will have to step up so hopefully the guys can do that.

“I know his club are playing Sydney this weekend, so he might be coming up against Tadhg. He wasn’t in the squad for last week’s game so hopefully he might get into it for this week’s and it’ll be interesting to see if they come up against each other. There was an A versus B game last week and he found the pace of it difficult and he found the skills hard so it’s very hard to tell. He’s very new to the game, he hasn’t found a position yet. They’re playing him in a variety of positions to try and find one that suits him.

“He’s still a long way off playing the AFL games. It’s a very high standard, he’s still a long way off the fitness and the skill level but he knew himself going over that it was going to be very difficult. It’s more a long-term goal than trying to make it in the short-term. Tadhg’s after slotting straight back in with Sydney and supposedly he played very well. Tadhg will just slot back in, but with Tommy it’s a lot of work to try and even get onto the squad before he starts playing.”

Tommy Walsh first made a real name for himself as part of the Kerry under-21 team that won the All-Ireland in 2008 – and the expectation now is Barry John can do likewise in 2010: “A lot of those guys have gone on and played senior. Tommy, at that stage, he hadn’t played senior and he was performing well at that age group and that helped him to step on to the senior. A lot of us will hopefully do the same thing.

“Obviously there are a lot of spots available on the Kerry team, with all the retirements, but I think it’s up to the guys on the fringes of last year’s team to try and step in and fill the spaces.

“In fairness to Jack O’Connor and the lads they’ll give everyone an opportunity to have a crack at it and it’s up to every individual guy that when your chance comes you have to take it and prove your worth.”