Walsh unfazed by criticism of his robust playing style

NEWLY crowned Hurler of the Year Tommy Walsh insists his sensational season wasn’t soured by constant criticism about his ‘on the edge’ style of play.

Kilkenny defender Walsh picked up yet another award yesterday when he named the Opel GPA Hurler of the Month for September.

But while he also finished the year with a seventh All Star award one would expect that regular criticism of his apparent overly physical wing back play might have tainted those remarkable achievements.

But Walsh stressed: “It never bothered me once and I don’t say that lightly. Every hurler gets criticism and I’m hurling 26 years and I have taken criticism before this year. You just learn from it and get on with it but it definitely didn’t affect me.’’

He added: “On the day it started against Galway in the Leinster semi-final I suppose people were just commenting on that match and different things that happened in that match. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and the job of The Sunday Game analysts is to analyse it and that is what they did.”

Similarly, he balked at suggestions that referees may have been influenced by the comments about him and dealt with him differently during big games.

“No, because I know the referees are out there to do a job and they have guys up in the stand that are rating their performances too,” continued Walsh. “They go out to enforce the rules and that is all they are thinking about. I think there is enough pressure on them to be thinking too much of anything else.”

Walsh clearly isn’t keen to enter a debate about his approach to hurling. He similarly didn’t rock the boat when it was put to him that Kilkenny’s means of choosing their captain each year does them no favours.

As county champions Ballyhale Shamrocks have the right to select the Cats captain and TJ Reid is in line for the nod, even though he’s not a first team regular. Ballyhale trio James Fitzpatrick, Henry Shefflin and Michael Fennelly have already been selected in the past to captain Kilkenny.

“Definitely I’d be behind the system,” said Walsh. “It is not just about the player who gets the captaincy, you should see how proud the club is where he comes from. I know it has been huge for Ballyhale for the last three years and will be again next year. But in normal circumstances it would be a different club (selecting) every year.”

Meanwhile, Walsh says he’s puzzled by claims in Donal Óg Cusack’s autobiography that Kilkenny are hurling’s version of the Stepford Wives. The Cork goalkeeper claimed that the Kilkenny players maintain a squeaky clean GAA image by avoiding major issues, such as the Cork strike and previous GPA battles.

“To be honest I don’t even know what the Stepford Wives is,” said Walsh blankly. We just go out and our number one aim is to win the All-Ireland at the end of the year and I think that we have always tried to do our best to help hurling along too. That’s all we’ll ever do, if it helps hurling along we won’t mind doing it at all.”