Shane Walsh: 'When you get a football in your hands, it's a ball of magic'

Walsh displayed his full skillset during a memorable Connacht final performance, leaving manager Padraic Joyce to comment that he is 'one of the best footballers I've ever seen playing'

31 May 2022; Shane Walsh of Galway poses for a portrait during the launch of the GAA Football All Ireland Senior Championship Series in Dublin. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Shane Walsh admits his entire game is based on instinct and says he views the gaelic football as a 'ball of magic' once he gets it in his hands.

The Galway forward displayed his full skillset during a memorable Connacht final performance that yielded 1-6, leaving manager Padraic Joyce to comment that the 29-year-old is 'one of the best footballers I've ever seen playing'.

Walsh first alerted the wider GAA world to his unique ability during a 2014 qualifier against Tipperary in Tullamore, killing a miscued '45 from a team-mate by cushioning it on his right foot, a touch that popped the ball up into his hands and allowed him to spin away from his man and split the posts with his left foot.

In reality, it was the product of thousands of hours of ball work and the investment of people like his former primary school principal Peadar Brandon.

"If he hadn't come over to me when I was six or seven to say, 'Start kicking off your left foot', I probably wouldn't have developed that skill," said Walsh. "I remember he gave me about three or four weeks and when that time was up he said I was not allowed to kick off my right foot and it would be a free against me every time I did."

Practice literally made perfect though Walsh never viewed all those hours perfecting his skills as any sort of hardship, more a labour of love.

"When you get a football in your hands, it is a ball of magic really," he said. "It is about what you can do with it. That is something I have based my game around. People give out to me, especially Padraic and the management, 'You only come to life when you get the ball. Can you do more off the ball?' That is the challenge for me that I have to keep working on. At the same time, I know my strengths. When I am on the ball I know I can make things happen."

Walsh thrilled the crowds in Salthill on Connacht final day with a number of outrageous dummies.

"That's what it's about for me, learning the skills of the game and keeping learning. I'm not saying I know every skill in the game, I'm still learning. For example, the opposite hand to opposite foot solo and the way that can be used and how it's a weapon with regards to protecting the ball against an opposition player. I learned that from a lad that is a couple of years younger than me, David Clifford, I don't know if you know him! From someone who is really good at something, I see potential and I wonder can I bring it to my game."

Walsh will inevitably be a marked man on Sunday when he brings his bag of tricks to Croke Park for an All-Ireland quarter-final against Armagh. Not that he'll feel under pressure.

"The only way I'd ever be nervous was if I missed training," he said. "Because then I'm saying, 'Have I practiced enough?' Whereas right now I'm saying, 'I practice so much, just let me out there'. That's the way I am going into a game."

There'll be no set plan on how he'll kick the frees and '45s either, could be right foot, could be left foot. Could be off the ground, could be from the hands.

"I play on my instinct," said Walsh, who revealed he visualises the umpire waving his white flag and the scoreboard clicking over before each of his kicks.

His distinctive style and quirky approach has left some stumped over the years. Former U21 selector Paul Clancy pulled him aside once during training in 2013 and asked, 'Why do you keep kicking the ball so differently?' They were doing a shooting drill and Walsh was hooking, punting and spinning kicks over from all angles.

Walsh told him he didn't want a defender to ever have him figured out. "He was smiling and said, 'You're like a golfer, adding a couple of more irons to your play'," recalled Walsh of his conversation with Clancy. "The big thing for me is I don't want an opposition player to know what I'm going to do and I think I disguise it pretty well at times. Sometimes then I'll do the predictable, because they are not banking on it and thinking you're going to do a dummy."

The ambition at the end of it all is still to win an All-Ireland.

"If you have a manager inspiring you all the time to help you and encourage you on, then you're thinking, 'Well, why can't I?' That's the way I see it. Why not us?"