Centre of attention
For a man of very few words, Carlow native Tommy Walsh has made quite a statement for his adopted Wicklow
Wicklow's Thomas Walsh in action against Martin Flanagan of Westmeath during their Leinster Championship defeat
THE story goes that Mick O'Dwyer landed at the Walsh house one evening in a bid to coax Tommy back into the Wicklow fold.
Rumours were rife that a return to Carlow was on the cards for Walsh, but, along with his loyal lieutenant Arthur French, O'Dwyer set about filling their home with his intoxicating and legendary enthusiasm for football. "I'm back for another run and I want you with me" was the message.
It must have been a bit surreal. The most celebrated football manager in history trying to convince a big lad
from Fenagh to play county football.
A packet of biscuits later, it was decided that Tommy would return to Wicklow training on an April evening that finally put an end to a winter of discontent.
Amid the furore that surrounded Tommy's possible return to Carlow, the Walsh brothers sought refuge in rugby with local side Tullow. Despite their size, Tommy was put at full-back and Paddy, who himself has featured for the Carlow footballers, was out on the wing.
"We knew the lads weren't up to anything so we asked them over," said one club official. "It was a great boost to us when they came."
Tullow is a place where the GAA and rugby happily share the same pool of players over the seasons. An ambitious club, they recruited highly-rated Leinster forward and Carlow native Sean O'Brien to help coach their side. They made it all the way to the Towns Cup quarter-final, the blue riband competition for clubs in Leinster, where they were beaten by eventual champions Boyne.
"That was a bad team performance that day," O'Brien recalled. "We didn't really get going at all. But Tommy was one of the few who had a good game.
"He really impressed me with his attitude to training," the Heineken Cup winner said. "I suppose he would have been used to physical stuff with his county football. What you saw is what you got with him. He was consistent and honest. He has all the attributes to be a very good rugby player."
Though his bulk suggested he should be somewhere in the pack, most likely in the second or back-rows, O'Brien saw more in him than that. Good hands, a monster boot and an ability to break tackles saw him slot in at 15, from where they reckon he averaged about a try a game.
It was the perfect distraction from everything else. His work as an auctioneer had been heavily hit by the recession, while Luke Dempsey's return to Carlow added fuel to the fire of speculation that surrounded Walsh's return to his native county.
Top of Dempsey's 'to do' list, as it would be for any manager in his position, was to lure Walsh back to Barrowside. He went public and insisted he had been given guarantees that the Fenagh man would not return to Wicklow.
Perhaps that was down to frustration. Dempsey had spotted his talent early on and brought him onto Leinster's Railway Cup team when Walsh was an unknown and maybe felt he had his ear.
Dempsey was just one of many who had their opinions on what would and should happen. Some insisted a return to Carlow was imminent, while others suggested he would not play county football at all this year and there was even talk of a move to England to pursue further education. Rumours flew wildly, but Walsh, despite what must have been massive temptation, held his tongue.
oracle
Rewind to last summer in Croke Park. Micko had just worked the oracle again as Wicklow beat Kieran McGeeney's Kildare to record their first championship win at HQ.
The Garden County went wild, but amid the scenes of celebration that evening, Tommy spares a thought for his brother Paddy. Just a couple of hours after Wicklow's success, he trudged off the pitch, head full of 'what ifs' after another all-too-familiar defeat for Carlow in the opening credits of the Leinster championship.
If the recriminations started in Carlow, it was understandable. Here was a side that was in the same division as Carlow, beating a Kildare team and their high-profile manager in Croke Park with one of their own in the engine room.
But it was also unfair. Tommy Walsh had played with Carlow for six years and took what was far from an easy decision to leave friends and team-mates behind. True, they were without their best player, but that wasn't allowing for the fact that to line out for Carlow, he would have to tell a man of no less stature than O'Dwyer he wasn't interested in playing for him.
It also didn't give Walsh credit for how far he had come off the back of his own hard work.
It didn't all come easy for him. If he has natural talent and the frame to go with it, he has worked hard to fully realise his potential.
In one of his first Railway Cup outings, Walsh was introduced and withdrawn within 20 minutes, but he soon got up to pace and played a key part in helping to turn the 2006 final, which was played in Boston, in Leinster's favour in the closing minutes.
Former Cavan boss Val Andrews, who also worked with Walsh in Leinster's Railway Cup team, recalls the first time he saw him in action.
"I was watching the Carlow U-21s play Dublin in Parnell Park," Andrews said.
"We were keeping an eye on a few lads with a view to bringing them to Tralee IT.
"Dublin were giving them an absolute pasting, but Tommy was playing very well and kept on going right to the end, chasing and tackling. His attitude was spot on."
transformed
That attitude has transformed him into the one of the most coveted midfielders in the game.
O'Dwyer thought enough of him and midfield partner James Stafford to start them in Wicklow's Leinster championship opener against Westmeath, despite the fact that neither man had played any inter-county football in 2009.
Stafford had returned from Australia while Walsh had come through a different sort of journey. It must have been the first time in history that two midfielders started a championship game without having played that year.
It could be argued that the experiment back-fired as they lost to Westmeath after extra-time, but they have put on something of a gallop since then with qualifier wins over Fermanagh, Cavan and Down that have helped Wicklow into previously unchartered waters of the last 12 in the country.
Walsh has been central to those victories and now they face Kildare, where Walsh's and Micko's story of success with Wicklow really began with that first championship win in Croke Park.
That McGeeney and Dermot Earley will have talked this week about negating his influence around the middle third, is a measure of how far he has come.
As ever, he has let everyone else do the talking lately, but his football will say everything that he wants to be heard.
- DONNCHA BOYLE
