Kevin Walsh book extract: The greatest disappointment of my senior county career

In these exclusive extracts from his brilliant new memoir, The Invisible Game: Maths, Minutes and Movement, Galway two-time All-Ireland winner and former manager, Kevin Walsh, remembers going up against the might of Kerry in the 2000 All-Ireland final and replay.

Kevin Walsh receiving treatment on a knee injury: X-rays afterwards revealed that a chunk of the kneecap had broken away.

It came as a shock that I wouldn’t start the All-Ireland. Before the semi-final, when he was mulling over the idea of picking me, I had told Johno (O’Mahony) that neither Fada nor Joe deserved to lose their places after three good wins. We were going well, so why change?

That didn’t apply now. I had to come in just after half-time because we were in big trouble. Something had shown itself not to be right and I had been called upon to turn it around. So I was annoyed.