He’d still do a job
The Kilkenny senior hurling side seem to be doing just fine without the sextet of legends that called it quits after last year’s All-Ireland triumph.
Henry Shefflin at 35 had won pretty much every honour in the game, while for JJ Delaney the decision to quit had pretty much been made at the beginning of the year.
For the others including David Herity and Brian Hogan they had endured and won with some of the best hurlers of all time and were ready to move away from the county scene.
But Tommy Walsh, well it appears he had no intention of calling it quits at the start of 2014, until management decided he was no longer a first team regular which forced his hand
The man in the red helmet started no championship game for the Cats in 2014, and was only introduced as a substitute in the provincial series twice while he watched his younger brother Padraig carry the family name into battle against Tipperary in the two September showpieces.
And now ahead of his hurling legends tour of Croke Park this weekend, the Tullaroan man has revealed the thinking behind his decision to retire just weeks after picking up his ninth All-Ireland medal.
The player had made 51 successive appearances for Cody but when introduced in the 2014 championship it was as a forward.
Walsh,who in his latter career was known as one of the most devastating wing-backs of all time could sense the end,
‘I knew when I was moved from the backs into the forwards that the time was coming.’
‘If I was in the backs you might be out of form but you’d get back into it. My natural position is in the backs – that’s where I love hurling, that’s where I love training and love playing. I suppose the forwards is a bit different to that and when I did move up I knew that it would be my last year.’
‘I never wanted to go out on a high; my thing was to go whenever I wasn’t being picked. I didn’t think it would come that early and I thought I might get another year or two out of it. I was obviously hoping to go as long as I could and it did end a bit early for me.’
‘I would hate to be sitting back at home and thinking that if I stayed I could still have been playing. That would have been a bigger regret of mine. I’m happy the way I went out but obviously I would have liked if it had gone on a bit longer.’
Walsh’s worlds are also tinged with pride in the fact that his place on the side was taken by his yonger brother Padraig. The now 32-year-old reveals that seeing his brother develop under Brian Cody, and play a key role in the county’s 35th All-Ireland success meant more than his own disappointment at missing out
‘The big thing for me was I had a brother that had no All-Ireland medal and I wanted to make sure he had one in his back pocket,” he says of 24-year-old Pádraig, who started the All-Ireland final replay and adorned the No. 5 jersey his brother had worn for years with a superb display.’
‘To see your own brother there makes up for the disappointment that you wouldn’t be playing yourself. To see him being picked for the replay, having such a great day and winning the All-Ireland, was a very proud moment for myself and the family.’
H/T to GAA.ie
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