Kerry selector admits they may have handled Tommy Walsh’s return badly

It would nearly be better if he had crashed and burned, instead of quietly fading away.

There were, understandably, great things expected when Tommy Walsh returned from his AFL experience. The supreme physical specimen, who had been virtually unplayable as Kerry won Sam Maguire in 2009, was returning home after living five years as a professional athlete. Instead, Walsh in his diminished form, looked like a professional athlete who had suffered a traumatic hamstring injury and, in 2015, never played any more than a bit part role as Kerry returned to the All-Ireland final. A week ago it was announced that the 28 year old was leaving Eamonn Fitzmaurice's county panel to focus on playing with his club Kerins O'Rahilly. Now Kerry selector Mikey Sheehy has admitted that there may have been errors in how the Kingdom handled the repatriation of the former Sydney Swan.

“In hindsight, when he came back initially, he might have been better off going back to his club. And then coming back to us,” he told the Irish Examiner. “Maybe we should have nailed him down to one position. Last year he played a couple of games wing forward. It didn’t suit him. We tried him this year inside full-forward in a few of the games. But he was probably unlucky in the fact that in the first two league games we were missing some marquee players."

Perhaps lacking the explosive pace that set him apart from other big men in the first chapter of his career, there is a school of thought out there that Walsh would have benefitted from more playing time with his club to get a feel for the round ball again and figure out how to adapt to his own changed circumstances. Instead he was allowed to spend the summer stewing on the Kerry bench, limited to a small number of cameos that did little for his confidence - or the confidence of others - in his ability. “He is very dedicated. It just wasn’t happening for him. It might be the right thing or the wrong thing by us that we didn’t give him enough game-time," said Sheehy, who has left the door ajar for Walsh.

“Maybe the fact he’s gone back to his club now, to Rahilly’s, he’ll get plenty of football. The door is always open from our point of view. It’s up to him. “To be fair, Tommy would still have been part of the squad except he decided to do this. And we understand his frustration. “If he was playing well with his club this year and if he was interested I’d say he’d be hauled back in again. I hope it turns round for him.”

Who knows, if Kerry are involved long into the summer (fairly good chance of that, let's be fair) then maybe we will see a rejuvenated Tommy Walsh back in green and gold.