FEET FIRMLY ON THE GROUND

JOHN WOODEN knew a thing or two about winning.

The famed American basketball coach landed ten NCAA National Championships in just 12 seasons with UCLA — a record unmatched in any era — but he had his doubts about the merits of winning with such regularity.

“It breeds envy and distrust in others,” said the Indiana-born coach whose greatest successes were achieved in the 1960s and ’70s, “and over-confidence and a lack of appreciation very often in those who enjoy it.”

Tommy Walsh and the rest of the Kilkenny hurlers would gladly accept the envy and distrust of the hurling community at large if it meant a continuation of their current run of success. But the All Star wing-back would probably find some wisdom in the latter half of Wooden’s remark.

Nine weeks ago, Brian Cody’s team had already qualified for the NHL final with wins over Galway, Tipperary, Clare and Cork by an average of 17 points. Their opening day defeat to Waterford looked more freakish with each passing week. Obituaries were already being prepared for the 2009 championship but then Dublin left Nowlan Park with a two-point defeat and a moral victory and Tipperary continued the uprising by taking the Cats to extra-time in the final.

“To be honest, we were lucky,” says Walsh of the latter stages of the league, “because what happened in the earlier rounds of the league is not what happens in championship.

“What happened in the last rounds against Tipperary and Dublin, against Waterford at the start of the league, that’s what championship is all about, where your back is to the wall and you’re asking yourself questions like ‘are we going to win this?’”

Those of a more pessimistic bent pointed out that Kilkenny still won both games but most were too hungry for any small morsel to care. Dublin and Tipp’s performances had lifted the gloom that was smothering the hurling fraternity, if only temporarily.

Alas, it eradicated any trace of overconfidence in the Kilkenny camp too according to Walsh.

“Oh definitely, because it’s very tough when people are saying ‘you’re a great team and you’re going to run away with the championship’. The biggest, toughest thing for any team is to keep that out of the camp and it was just great for the team to bring us back down to earth.

“It wasn’t even as if we were bad on the day (against Tipperary). It showed that even if we are good on the day we can still be beaten. So it’s just trying to keep going to the bitter end and realising that Kilkenny can be beaten, no matter if we’re in good or bad form.”

The game against Tipperary carried the most weight. Kilkenny had already qualified for the decider when Dublin visited the Marble City in the last round but Tipp came to the final with their minds on more than just a trophy.

Talked up as Kilkenny’s only serious challenger all winter, Liam Sheedy’s men looked anything but in late March on the back of a 17-points defeat in Nowlan Park.

The determination to make amends ensured a game of legendary proportions. Forty-nine scores were shared in the course of 90 minutes. Four players were sent off and more could have joined them. Walsh was one of those to escape full censure after throwing his stick at John O’Brien. The tendency of players on both sides to bend and break the rules was debated in the week after but when Walsh looks back at the afternoon now he all but shrugs his shoulders as if to say ‘what do you expect?’

“Hurling’s a tough game. I wouldn’t be giving out about the referees. They have their job to do and I’m sure the disciplinary committees have their jobs to do and want to keep the games as clean as they can.

“But I don’t think there was anyone injured badly because of dirty tackles or nastiness. Both teams were just so determined. There’s a fierce rivalry between Tipp and Kilkenny. We both live right beside each other and there’d be a lot of rivalry between the fans as well.”

Walsh may be a supremely talented hurler, an All Star this past six seasons, but he is a player who has always relished the physical side of the game. He loved Tipp’s belligerence on the day and it was an occasion that gave him more satisfaction than any this year. Tipp had thrown everything they had at Kilkenny and they had dealt with every bit of it but he doesn’t believe that offers definitive proof of their readiness for the summer to come, starting with the historic Leinster semi-final against Galway this evening.

The Connacht side’s entrance into the provincial campaign has exercised many a mind this past year. Both Leinster and Galway itself have been split on the merits and demerits of the move but Walsh’s wasn’t one of them.

Players in any code are notoriously tunnel-visioned and Walsh’s thoughts are dominated more by men like Sean Cummins and John Dalton, guys eager to usurp him in the first XV, rather than the plusses and minuses of Galway’s changed circumstances.

“They’re in, and I don’t mind. If they weren’t in, I wouldn’t mind either. You have to beat any team to go on and win the All-Ireland. What I would say is it’s probably a great help to Galway because I know that they would be crying out for extra championship matches. I’d definitely say it’s a big help for Galway hurling.”

As with the league final, it may also prove to be a big help for Kilkenny.