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Sydney’s latest Irish experiment Tommy Walsh made a solid start to his AFL career on Saturday, attacking packs with vigour and earning praise from coach John Longmire.
Walsh was finally unleashed in the forward line against Melbourne at the SCG – more than two years after his life in Australia started with St Kilda.
The 24-year-old was traded to the Swans last year, but had to wait until round eight to make his debut.
“Was it worth the wait? Yeah it was,” Walsh said.
“It was special being my first game but the important thing was we won the game.
“I was blowing early. It’s obviously a lot quicker than what I’ve been used to … after the first quarter, I felt a bit better.”
Walsh clutched six marks – three of them contested – and kicked two goals on debut.
At the SCG were father Sean, who made the journey from Ireland, and mentor Tadhg Kennelly, who was a teammate of Walsh’s at Gaelic football side Kerry.
Ex-Swan Kennelly offered no shortage of plaudits from ABC radio’s commentary box, and Longmire was similarly upbeat about Walsh’s forward partnership with Sam Reid.
“I thought he improved as the game went on. He got a pretty solid knock halfway through the third quarter,” Longmire said.
“We got him into the team to help us with another tall up there and I thought his efforts to kick a couple of goals, get a bit of the footy and win some important one-on-one contests (was impressive).
“And also (to) help Reidy out was also the extra advantage to that, and that’s what we were really pleased with.”
Reid played with more confidence than he has in the past month and the 20-year-old kicked his first goal since round three.
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