Galway star Shane Walsh on his chances of featuring in glamour rematch with Armagh

Football's raft of new rules may have been drafted with accurate long kickers like Shane Walsh in mind - but Galway fans may have to wait to see just how well he adapts to them.

Walsh was present in the new-look Cedral St Conleth’s Park on Saturday evening as Galway scored a 2-18 to 0-17 win over Kildare in what was the first airing of the rules in a public setting, but he wasn’t togged out as he phases his way back, with club and county campaigns rolling into each other in recent years. His Kilmacud Crokes boss Robbie Brennan revealed that he didn’t train fully with Galway from the All-Ireland quarter-final win over Dublin on, as ankle and groin issues nagged at him, while he didn’t reappear for the club until the county quarter-final stage and played right through to their county final loss to Cuala.

And while Crokes had ambitions beyond Dublin, the fact that they weren’t realised allowed the Galway star to take a much-needed break. He only fully rejoined county training in the last week or so.

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He said: “Thankfully the break came and I haven’t had that break probably in the last two years and it’s great because I was able to get on top of things and put in a bank of work as well. I’m nearly there, which is great, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in that sense. It's great to be back. I took part in training last week and it was brilliant to be back with the lads again because it feels weird when you are doing your running and your rehab, it can be a lonely place, and there are lads there that know more about it than me but it’s great to be back and be looking forward again.”

Galway start their League campaign with a glamour home tie against Armagh, who edged them out in last year’s All-Ireland final, under the new Pearse Stadium floodlights on January 25. Too soon for Walsh, perhaps?

“Please God (I will play) but you don’t know Padraic [Joyce] has the lads here that are working away as well. At the moment I am down the pecking order and that's a good place to be because lads are doing well in training and that is where you want to be. The squad is evolving more and even Paul [Conroy] coming back, there are lads willing to step up and step in and hopefully when the time comes and I get a bit of training under my belt I’ll try and push the lads.”

The fact that Walsh is only just getting back on the grass and took no part in Saturday’s game means that he’s playing catch-up in terms of the new rules, as well as his fitness.

“I’ve been around training, you are still doing your bits but I’m probably not exposed to the tactics of it in a way but I'm still there in meetings and you know what is going on. But yeah, in-game is different. It’s easy to sit in the stand and say I saw what happened there but in the heat of battle sometimes you make the mistake but hopefully we won’t make too many of them when I’m back properly.

“Look, we talk about it so much at training and lads are coaching each other in relation to things, grey areas you don’t know and I think that is probably the best way to learn. Some lads will have one rule picked up better than the other.”

Conroy exploited the new two-pointer brilliantly in Saturday’s game and it’s an area where the likes of Walsh would be expected to prosper too, while the ‘three-up’ rule should afford him more space in attack.

An umpire waves the new orange flag for a two-pointer.
(Image: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane)

“If you are an inside forward you want the space in front of you as well so they are the big two. The dissent rule will be huge because there has been a lot of game management going on the last seven, eight, nine years, game management has been huge as they like to call it, that's probably the big one. From a referee’s point of view 50m is a harsh (punishment) but I think it is great. Even the talking back to a referee and only having one person (talking to the ref), I think that's the way the game needs to go because referees get an awful time of it in games.”

The idea of handing the ball to the opposition player after the concession of a free will require a significant cultural change among players.

Walsh added: “In fairness, we have explored every possible angle to try as best we can to manoeuvre it but literally you have to give the ball back. Even if there is a player not close to you, you have to go to him. You can’t be standing waiting - you have to go to him. It's a way of cleaning up the game and, at the end of the day, if you make the foul you have to work back and help out the team.”

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