Aidan Walsh has thanked Cork manager Conor Counihan for giving him time off at the start of the year to travel around Australia.

The 22-year-old Kanturk man rang in the New Year in Perth before travelling on to Cairns and touring the east coast from there. He travelled with a group that included Cork team-mate Ciaran Sheehan, and even bumped into Dublin's Bernard Brogan on his travels.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner ahead of tomorrow's Allianz Football League final against Mayo, he said: "The last few years have been very busy with the GAA and it's been tough to try to go for a break. You'd see a load of friends going away on J1s and wonder are you missing out on it.

"You don't want to look back and regret not ever going for an opportunity like that. My cousins are over in Australia and I hadn't seen them in a long time. So I talked to Conor (Counihan) about having a break in January and he had no problem. It was expensive but brilliant and well worth it for the craic."

He continued: "I was in a hostel one day and bumped into Bernard Brogan by chance. It turned out he was doing the same trip as us so we met him in a lot of places going down the coast. We'd been on the same All Stars trip together in Malaysia at the end of 2010. He's a fierce nice fella and it was great to get to know him.

"It's one thing I like to do, getting to know lads off the field that you'd be in opposition to on the field. The Cork boys would be slagging me about it. But I'd use those trips as a chance to talk to and get to know other players. For the International Rules trip, I got to know the Donegal lads Michael Murphy and Karl Lacey very well, and also Brendan Murphy from Carlow. It was great." Tweet

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