“It is just brilliant to be back playing with Galway, playing with some familiar faces again,” Becky Walsh says about her welcome return to the west of Ireland.
Walsh has forged a successful and eventful sporting career, representing maroon and white teams in different codes at the highest level. Delivering for Stephen Lally’s Galway WFC in the WNL alongside former colleagues Julie Ann Russell and Meabh De Burca merely adds to the feel good factor surrounding the progressive club.
“I trained under Stephen before, it is great, I am loving being home,” she adds. “It is always a pleasure wearing the maroon jersey.”
Being back home and occupying a central role in Galway WFC’s improving recent form matters deeply to Walsh.
“Sport has just been a massive part of my identity, forever really,” Walsh says. “I just take great pride in playing for Galway, whether it is in GAA or soccer, I have such a network of friends, such a community built up around Galway through playing sport.
“It has offered and given so much to me so I am just happy to be back. Hopefully I can give something back.
“I have been very lucky to be involved with successful teams. Salthill Devon was just a dream to play with growing up, we had great success, we were quite fortuitous, we got good players in around the same time. We had a brilliant management team that really moulded us.”
Those days hinted at the potential that existed. Now the Galway WFC squad features a potent cocktail of emerging and established performers so Walsh is relishing the adventure.
“It is really exciting for the club because we have so much talent coming in underage, the U19s are showing it how it is done,” she responds.
“They are winning games on the trot, we have a good few involved in our squad and they bring a great presence to training. They are very professional in their approach and they are quite ambitious.
“They bring that energy that we need, hopefully we bring that bit of experience to the group. A few of us have played in different teams around Ireland, some of the girls have been abroad so it is great to bring that knowledge back to the club, hopefully we can bring a bit of cohesiveness.
“A few of us just came in over the summer, it just takes a bit of time to gel, to make things tick. I think we are getting there, slowly, but surely.”
There is significant potential in Lally’s squad with next month’s FAI Cup semi-final away to Shelbourne promising to be a revealing fixture according to Walsh, who believes real progess is being made.
“I think it is an exciting time for Galway football and I am looking forward to seeing how it plays out in the years to come,” Walsh adds. These are encouraging times for Galway WFC with Walsh a key contributor in the unfolding 2021 story.
**Listen to the full interview with Becky Walsh on this week’s ‘Cian On Sport’ podcast available on Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple podcasts.
