It’s a kick that has haunted Tommy Walsh, the last kick of Kerry’s 2021 Championship and the last kick of the Tralee man’s inter-county career.
A point down, and with extra-time as good as up in August’s All-Ireland semi-final against Tyrone, Walsh burst out from the full-forward position for Kerry and took a ball on the loop from Paudie Clifford out on the left wing before, with Ronan McNamee trailing, taking a pot shot at glory from about 30 metres out.
A point would have sent the game to penalties. But Walsh dragged his kick left and David Coldrick blew for full-time as Niall Morgan’s resulting kick-out hung in the air.
“Whenever you’re involved in a big moment like that and it doesn’t go your way, sure it’s going to haunt you,” said Walsh, who retired weeks later.
“In hindsight, it obviously wasn’t the right decision to go for it. At the time, I was running across, I felt it was an okay angle and I just felt I had a yard or two more than I did.
“I think my standing leg collapsed a bit when I was kicking it as well, which obviously didn’t help. Look, they’re the split-second decisions you make when you’re in those games and unfortunately that one just didn’t go over.”
At 33, and following three separate stints as a Kerry senior, the end had finally come for two-time All-Ireland winner Walsh. He misses aspects of it but reckons if he was still a Kerry player he wouldn’t, for example, have attended the Munster hurling final in Thurles last weekend – “it was an unbelievable experience” – or been able to properly enjoy his brother’s wedding in the US in April. He’s playing more golf too.
His considered view from this side of the wire, as a spectator now like the rest of us, is that it’s probably still too early in 2022 to make any real judgements about Kerry.
Sure, they’ve played 13 competitive games, claimed three different trophies and leaked just two goals in that time, but has their team been fully stress tested yet? Probably not.
“I think they’ve done everything that’s been asked of them but, and with no disrespect to Cork or Limerick, when you’re not playing the top, top teams you would worry about it, particularly with the gap that exists between the Munster final and the next match,” said Walsh, noting the four-week break between their demolition of Limerick and the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
Ultimately, that true test of Kerry might not come until an anticipated All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin.
“The Dublin performance the last day really put them in the upper echelons again,” claimed Walsh, referencing Dublin’s Leinster final drubbing of Kildare.
“I think it would be a fantastic game and I think Kerry would probably have enough to beat them, but they are a dangerous team so I wouldn’t be saying it would be definite by any means.”
Their new-found defensive strength should stand to them. If you include the McGrath Cup, then Kerry have played nearly 1,000 minutes of competitive football in 2022 and conceded just two goals.
One of those was a Conor McManus penalty conversion for Monaghan in the league, the other a Darren McCurry goal for Tyrone from open play.
“I think Tadhg Morley is sitting in at centre-back and I think he’s had a calming influence on things back there,” said Walsh. “He was someone I was very impressed with last year, he put in a lot of work to get himself to a really good level. He was just a bit unlucky with suspensions and injuries and different things.
“I think he’s really gone up a few gears this year which is great to see. Playing in that holding role, he’s a really intelligent guy and he’s probably filling in a few gaps that might have been there before.”
There’s the clear influence of Paddy Tally too, the former Down manager who has carved a career out of strengthening leaky defences.
“When you bring in someone like Paddy Tally who is probably that little bit defensive -minded in terms of structures and things like that, it is going to make improvements,” said Walsh.
* Tommy Walsh was speaking at the launch of Guinness 0.0′s GAA campaign ‘Yours for the Taking’.
