‘I don’t like being called a defensive wing-forward’
His timing wasn’t great, Donnchadh Walsh acknowledges.
The Kerry wing-forward started a three-year course in physiotherapy the week after the Kingdom lost to Dublin, in 2011: “I was up there to take all the hits.”
Now in his final year, Walsh hasn’t had an easy ride.
“It was tough because I was struggling with a groin injury for a while and the first few months of last year was all about my rehab. So it worked out not too bad in that missing the start of the league was the way I needed to go, to make sure I was fresh for the championship.
“It was basically that I had weak glutes — that meant I suffered from chronic groin pains, for a long time. I suffered from it for 18 months going on two years, so I am on top of it now. But I think that being up in Dublin and away from training for a while, did me a lot of good in terms of recovery.”
The course has given Walsh a greater appreciation of his own injury.
“It’s been a great help. I just turned 29 at the start of July so you have to be able to manage your body, with the training that you have to do.
“Management are pushing us all the time in training but sometimes you need to know your own body.
“You get that with experience but with the knowledge I have gained now in the physiotherapy, I understand it even more so. The physiotherapy has been a great help and I have been feeling great this year since getting over my injury.”
Walsh made his league debut in 2003, but then did not play with Kerry again until 2007, when he made his championship debut.
“I was coming into an All-Ireland winning team in 2006 so the names were established and I was trying to break into that team. It was a bit daunting at the start and I wasn’t a new kid on the block either. I had been there, did not make it, and this was my second bite of the cherry. So it took a while to believe in myself again.
“We won again in 2007, reached the All-Ireland final in 2008, won 2009, so it was very hard and in my career I have been there or thereabouts, being on the team, off the team.”
Even then there were disappointments. Walsh was dropped for the 2009 All-Ireland final, for instance.
“I was happy to come on and play my part on the day. I was just delighted to win an All-Ireland medal that day. It was one of my two and I will never forget being part of that. I wouldn’t be bitter at all about it. I have taken the place of other fellas who have been dropped so it’s part of the game.”
That was certainly true for the Munster final, as Walsh points out.
“If you take the example of Kieran Donaghy he would have been the established player in the team, and maybe he was unlucky not to start against Cork, but it just shows that any fella hitting form is going to be on the first 15.
“So that means if I lose a bit of form, I’m going to be sitting on the bench. There is pressure on you every night at training to keep your standards up, and that’s the way it has to be.
“Often (managers) say that they want 30 players fighting for the 15 jerseys but they don’t always back it up. Fitzmaurice backed it up on this occasion and it’s a signal to all of us that no one is guaranteed his place.”
Walsh is often seen as a willing workhorse for the team. He has a more nuanced view of his role: “I think my game can change depending on the opposition we are playing. There are so many roles that a modern day wing-forward has to play, so many jobs that he has to do that it is often very hard to complete them all successfully on a given day.
“Often you have to compromise on some of those roles to best attack the opposition. Has my role changed in the team? I’m not sure, but I don’t like being referred to as a defensive half-forward.
“You get more experienced every year, with every game you play. The game is changing as well every year, and sometimes you have to play it as you see it. Eamonn Fitzmaurice can go through all the tactics in the world but sometimes you just have to play it as you see it, and every player has to be able to adapt to the opposition you’re playing, and that is always the challenge for us.”
He says experience has strengthened his overall game. So has Colm Cooper’s switch to the 40.
“I’ve been working on my kicking, getting better at breaking tackles, at tackling myself,” says Walsh. “I’ve probably improved five to 10% on different aspects of my game. It’s great playing next to him (Cooper) because he makes the rest of us look 20% better than we are. Obviously he draws so much attention that it takes that away from the likes of me. He’ll see stuff others won’t see.
“I love having him out there and it’s worked well so far. We thought he was poor at tackling but he must have put in some of the best tackles ever in the last three games.
“He puts the ball into the fella’s mouth, and as long as the guy holds it . . . it’s not a case of, ‘Oh if the pass is good’ — you know the pass will be good so there’s a score on.”
The manager encourages them to think, he says: “You mightn’t gamble with a 50-50 shot if you’re defending a lead and so on. And Eamonn expects that and expects us to express that, he hands it over to us to ask what we’re going to do in certain circumstances.”
That includes shooting more?
“Absolutely. It’s a bonus for me to get on the score sheet, I’m out in midfield, helping the defence, starting attacks, and we don’t care who scores. It’s important for forwards to score, the media make a big deal out of it, or people saying ‘Donnchadh Walsh didn’t score’, but it doesn’t bother me. Well, maybe a small bit.”
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