The moment of the game.
Padraig Walsh is in the full back line by necessity. A problem position for Kilkenny ever since JJ Delaney hung up his stick in 2014, Brian Cody has tried and failed to fill that famous number three jersey on numerous occasions in the meantime.
Joey Holden was tested, Paul Murphy had spells there. After Tipperary’s inside forwards roasted Kilkenny’s last line in the 2016 All-Ireland final, Brian Cody knew it was his most pressing problem.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. In Kilkenny’s first match of their 2017 League campaign against Waterford, the previous year’s All-Star half back, Padraig Walsh was called upon to mind the house.
Cody’s decision came under fire at the time. In fairness, the critics had a point. Walsh was the best half back in hurling in 2016 and his rampaging attacking play was perhaps his best attribute. A beast under opposition puck-outs, he seemed to always make a collected decision when in possession.
Attacking surges were the name of the game for the Tullaroan trooper but he was also a mean marker who wouldn’t give his opposing wing forward an inch.
Brian Cody is well aware how much of a weapon Walsh was at 5. But he also knows that Walsh is one of those players who could do a job for him in any position on the field. After all, he regularly plays in the forwards for his club.
And he has minded the house like a pedigree guard dog for Kilkenny ever since Cody called upon him. You can call it robbing Peter to pay Paul, you can bemoan one of the game’s most skilful players being restricted but it was a decision to put his team in a better place and it has undoubtedly done that.
The ship is steady now. Necessity has created the most flamboyant number three in the country.
Because Walsh still finds time to showcase his abilities. So often in this League campaign we’ve seen him dart out the field leaving trails of opponents in the wake of his destructive solos.
Just look at the point he scored on the opening evening of the competition against Cork.
Padraig Walsh bursts out from full back position to give Kilkenny that much needed inspiration pic.twitter.com/G9u3t0kWfG
— The GAA (@officialgaa) January 27, 2018
On Sunday against Tipperary, Walsh faced his greatest challenge to date in the red hot Jason Forde. The Premier County’s inside man did put it up to Walsh, and got some change off him early on, but Walsh was always tight and you got the impression that Forde might really have ran riot were he on a lesser man in Nowlan Park.
Walsh wasn’t overly involved in general play in the League decider. His efforts were focused on tracking Tipperary’s star man, but you can’t keep him down for a full 70 and he did drop jaws of the 20’000 crowd early on in the second half.
Paudie Maher lumped a high ball down to the corner forward position between John McGrath and the impressive Enda Morrissey. McGrath and Morrissey tussled for position under the Grace Stand with the Kilkenny back fouling McGrath in the process.
Referee Alan Kelly didn’t blow though and the play went on. Padraig Walsh, sensing the opportunity, tracked the ball’s flight and ghosted over towards its destination.
He didn’t give a damn about the two boys. He probably didn’t even know they were there. With his eyes firmly fixated on the dropping lightening rod, he spring heeled off the hallowed turf and lunged over the two lads like Javier Sotomayor in his prime.
Like he always does, he plucked it from the sky and his momentum sent him face flat into the ground.
You can watch it up close and personal here via the brilliant camera work of TG4.
Don’t underestimate the bravery to leave oneself open in a sea of loose hurleys and flailing bodies. Walsh doesn’t know what to be afraid of.
No wonder he was pissed off when Alan Kelly gave Tipperary a free for Morrissey’s foul on McGrath in the build-up.
We probably won’t have to wait too long until Walsh produces something similar again though.
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