![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Though I'm not sure 23 lends itself to 'boy' anymore.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/t ... 6188144237
Now, to a rare success story from the series - the emergence of Ireland's Walsh, a St Kilda project player for two years who has packed his bags and taken his talent, athleticism and unfulfilled ambition to Sydney for season 2012.
Perhaps Walsh might have defected to the Swans in any event, but giving him a crack at AFL level during his two seasons with the Saints might have helped soothe his frustration.
At 195cm and 97kg, he's a brute of a boy, as they might say in the old country, and the way he played the hybrid game in the past fortnight suggests he knows his way around a football field.
The Saints took him on in October 2009 as an international rookie. At the end of the 2011 season, he was still waiting for a chance in the AFL. Strange.
The wait must have been even more frustrating for him with countrymen Pearce Hanley a fixture with the Brisbane Lions and Zach Tuohy making exciting progress at Carlton.
To be fair to the Saints, they did declare him a required player in trade week, but the damage was done.
The Swans had promised him opportunity and, given their record with players from other clubs, he decided to move. They gave up draft picks 35 and 68, received from Adelaide as compensation for Lewis Johnston. Good deal all-round.
Australia's International Rules coach Rodney Eade said yesterday Walsh was an impressive athlete who might even play on a wing.
Certainly he will get his chance in Sydney, a chance the Saints will soon wish they had offered him.