By John Harrington

Galway football legend Padraic Joyce has urged his fellow county-man, Shane Walsh, to deliver on his huge potential on a consistent basis.

As a member of the Ireland International Rules management team, Joyce has been working closely with Walsh in recent weeks.

Walsh’s performances in training made him an automatic choice for the travelling squad, and Joyce believes he can bring his game to a new level with a bit more application.

“We've looked at him closely and he's been showing very well in training,” said Joyce.

“He's a very skilful footballer. Needs to apply himself a little bit more to the whole thing, but has two great feet, left and right foot.

“He has great pace, great speed, and can think a score which is what we need out here. I'm looking forward to seeing how we get on. He's been very prominent in the training matches and was one of the easiest picks on the team, to be honest.

“He has that talent in him, but he needs to just keep delivering it all the time.”

Flair has largely been sacrificed at the altar of tactics and work ethic in recent years when it comes to inter-county football, but Walsh is one of those rare players who can get people off their seats with regular moments of magic.

Joyce believes there should always be room for that sort of inspiration no matter how structured a team’s game-plan is.

A lot of football teams are playing to a system or programme a and the flair is being curtailed a little bit with the way teams are playing,” he says.

“Everything is done for the betterment of the team nowadays, but it's still good to have flair in there too and Shane definitely has it and is able to use it.”

Joyce hopes flair and skill will be essential ingredients in Ireland’s strategy in the International Rules tests against Australia on November 12 and 19th.

The full-time professional AFL players are likely to have an advantage in physical conditioning, but Ireland’s greater familiarity with the round ball should give them an edge in the skills of the game.

“We should have, but at the same time Australia have improved a lot in that regard,” says Joyce.

“They've gone for a smaller and more agile type of player. I know they've all been given a round ball each to get used to it too.

“They're professional athletes at the end of the day and they will improve on the round ball.

“Our lads should still be a bit superior when it comes to kick-passing it 30 or 40 yards. But kick-passing has gone out of our game a little bit as well, a lot of it is hand-passing.

“So it's trying to get lads to readjust to not being afraid to kick-pass the ball 30 or 40 yards into a guy's chest. If it goes askew, it goes askew, but at least try to get it in there.

“I think there's definitely an element of not giving the ball away in our own game. Fellas won't try an outrageous pass anymore. You won't have lads trying outside of the boot passes.

“But I think in this game we'll be giving the lads a free expression to do what they can. The tactic is to try to get as many marks as close to the game as we can, that's our objective.”