Walsh to focus only on football next season

THE GAA’s master-fixture planners may have played a role in deciding Aidan Walsh’s immediate inter-county future.

Kanturk’s Walsh, winner of the young footballer-of-the-year award last year, will continue to focus solely on that sport for the county next year.

Cork’s All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Mayo last month is one of the driving factors for Walsh opting not to become part of Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s hurling panel next season.

“After the disappointment this year with the football, I want to give that one more lash again next year,” Walsh said.

“I just want to concentrate on that so I won’t bother with the hurling. I know it’s a good time, with Jimmy Barry-Murphy coming in it’s massive, I’d say he’d be a very good fella to work with. I know if I tried both I wouldn’t be getting the most out of it.”

A dual Cork minor and U21 player, few doubt that Walsh would have what it takes to stake a claim for a senior hurling spot under Barry-Murphy. And, were it not for scheduling considerations, it might well have been the case that he opted for hurling.

“When I was fully minor, Duhallow got to the premier minor hurling final and I enjoyed it that year and I was wondering which one I’d pick,” he explained.

“The following year when I was 19 then, the U21 football was on before the hurling and we went on to win the All-Ireland and then I got called straight into the senior panel, that’s what swayed it in the end, really.

“The lads were great craic and [senior manager] Conor [Counihan] and the selectors were really good to me, it was a great period.”

Walsh’s colleague Eoin Cadogan has successfully managed to balance the two sports over the last two seasons since being called onto the football panel after the hurlers’ exit in 2009.

Playing in different positions make adapting more difficult, however.

“Eoin is playing dual, but he’s playing full-back in hurling and corner-back in football,” he said.

“I’d probably be playing in football and in hurling I normally play in the half-forwards, so it’s more difficult to adapt from one to the other.

“It’d take more out of me, playing midfield in football is hard enough as it is, I’m just afraid that if I tried to do both, next year anyway, I wouldn’t be getting anywhere in either one, I’d only be kind of a fringe player in both.”