Kevin Walsh rediscovering his love of coaching to shine a light on the invisible game

Kevin Walsh enjoyed an illustrious career as a soaring All-Ireland-winning midfielder with Galway before spells in management with Sligo and his native county. Having hung up his bainisteoir’s bib, he has now rekindled his love of coaching and is studying the game of football from a different perspective

Former Galway boss Kevin Walsh admits: "I’d love to go back coaching now. I’ve probably enough of management at this stage."

The way Kevin Walsh breaks it down, football is a game of 79:1; 69:1 at club. Allow for added time and you’re basically out there for 70 or 80 minutes, and for all but maybe 60 seconds of it, you won’t be on the ball. Yet how much thought and coaching goes into how you individually can influence the game for those other 79 minutes?

As a player he prided himself on how he operated in those other 79 minutes. Although he was capable of pulling his share of ball down back when midfield was exclusively a land of giants and he was also good to kick a point at least every second game, the biggest secret to him winning two All-Irelands and three All-Stars was his mastery of what he calls “The Invisible Game”.