GAA Talking Points: Walsh's greatness blooms as Ballyhale cement theirs
MAIN ATTRACTION: Shane Walsh of Kilmacud Crokes celebrates after the Dublin County Senior Club Championship Football Final match between Kilmacud Crokes and Na Fianna at Parnell Park in Dublin. Pic: Daire Brennan/Sportsfile
At the final whistle of yesterday’s Dublin county football final, Shane Walsh embraced Craig Dyas and a handful more of his Kilmacud Crokes team-mates before being swamped by a horde of autograph hunters. As Walsh was being dragged away minutes later for an interview with TG4 to receive his man-of-the-match award, the posse were still following like the pied piper.
Walsh has always been a brilliant player but ever since he duelled it out with David Clifford in the All-Ireland final, as both enthralled the stadium and the millions watching with their sorcery and genius, Walsh is the only other footballer in the country outside of Clifford who can command that box-office status.
That focus narrowed even more after the All-Ireland final when his transfer from Kilkerrin-Clonberne to Kilmacud caused huge controversy. When Walsh kicked three wides in the second half yesterday, each shot was greeted with a chorus of jeers which underlined how so many people outside of Kilmacud never agreed with the move.
Walsh had spent ten minutes in an ambulance before half-time getting stitched for a head wound, but the pressure on Walsh to deliver was inflated even more when Paul Mannion was out injured. Yet great players find a way when the heat is at boiling point. And Walsh ultimately was the difference between Crokes winning and losing.
Towards the end of the third quarter, Na Fianna had a couple of chances to go three, even four, points ahead but Walsh had levelled up the match within a couple of minutes with two brilliant points. From 21 plays in total, Walsh kicked 0-4 from play. He also registered four wides but his last two scores came just after he’d kicked two of those wides.
At the end of the match, Mannion hobbled out onto the pitch with crutches and his foot in a boot. As possibly the best forward in Leinster, Mannion is now probably only the second best forward in his club. That’s the status Walsh now commands. And yesterday, his class was decisive.
Nobody was in any doubt about the anticipated intensity and physicality in yesterday’s Kilkenny county final, but the opening quarter underlined just how chaotic and hard-hitting it would be. The first couple of minutes was like a game of pin-ball between the two 65 metre lines. Players only had possession for a handful of seconds, but anytime they managed to get the ball into their hand, getting enough time to get off a shot was a whole other ordeal.
It was relentless stuff from the first whistle. The first point from a free didn’t arrive until just before half-time. There were 14 shots in the first quarter but only five scores, with Ballyhale marginally ahead 0-3 to 0-2. An Eoin Guilfoyle goal put ‘The Village’ ahead by 1-4 to 0-4 but then the Shamrocks opened up, scoring seven unanswered points.
Despite having Paddy Mullen sent off early in the second-half, the Shamrocks showed their greater experience and craft. They were far slicker too in the wet conditions – they had a 62% conversion rate to James Stephens’ 46%.
Adrian Mullen had a brilliant second half when playing a deeper role after his brother was sent off, while Kilkenny’s other big players up front also stepped up. Mullen, Colin Fennelly and Eoin Cody made 21 plays in that second half, which amounted to three points from play and three assists.
Once again though, TJ Reid showed his absolute brilliance and class throughout. From 13 plays, Reid scored two points from play while he had four assists and was fouled for a converted free, which nearly ended in a goal. Reid did hit three wides from play but his dead-ball striking was impeccable as always in tough conditions.
After the heartbreak of last year’s All-Ireland final defeat, this was the first key step on the Shamrocks’ road to retribution. It’s only the first step, mind, but it was a huge one.
In the 40th minute of Saturday’s Donegal county final between Naomh Conaill and St Eunan’s, the Letterkenny side were leading by two points when Naomh Conaill’s Odhran Doherty launched a brilliantly angled high ball into the goalmouth. It was a two-on-two inside but Charles McGuinness had time to take the ball into his chest before slipping it low past Shaun Patton.
The Glenties outfit were still in control heading into the 50th minute but Eunan’s wrestled it back with their second goal, which stemmed from another long ball into the danger zone. Naomh Conaill had 14 players inside the ’45 when Kevin Kealy pounced on a loose breaking ball outside the square before hoovering it up and kicking it to the net.
Ciaran Thompson kicked the winning score for Naomh Conaill in the 58th minute but those two second half goals highlighted a trend which has returned this year, especially at club level, where teams have profited from long, high balls into the danger area.
That was particularly evident in the brilliant Gowna-Crosserlough Cavan semi-final two weeks ago. Conor Madden’s goal from Gowna originated from a long high ball – albeit it dropped just outside the 13-metre line – but Crosserlough caused chaos in the second half when they started bombing the Gowna square with high ball. They won a penalty, which they converted from the tactic, and also nearly had another couple of goals.
A day later in the Mayo football quarter-final, Cillian O’Connor pounced on a long ball that hopped in the square before punching it home. In yesterday’s Monaghan county final between Ballybay and Scotstown, the Scotstown goal came from a long ball from Emmett Caulfield, which skidded into the net.
Right across the club championship in recent months, the old-school tactic has come back. And it has been working.
In his RTÉ TV analysis after the Mid-Kerry/Feale Rangers Kerry senior football semi-final on Saturday evening, Darran O’Sullivan (who soldiered with Mid-Kerry for years) said that this “is as exciting a team that Mid-Kerry have had in the last five or ten years”.
They were impressive in a six-point win but it was still hard to gauge how good Mid-Kerry really were because Feale Rangers were outclassed and were chasing the game from the first ten minutes.
Mid-Kerry may not carry the same high profile names compared to East Kerry, who they will meet in the final, but they still have a raft of quality footballers, especially up front. Liam Carey, an All-Ireland minor winner in 2014 kicked three points from play while Eanna O’Connor – Jack’s son who transferred back from Kildare to Miltown-Castlemaine – nailed five points (two from play) from six shots.
Mid-Kerry have the experience from having reached the final two years ago, which they lost to East Kerry, but they were operating at a higher standard than their opponents. Three of the Feale Rangers clubs are playing at Junior level whereas four of the mid-Kerry clubs are plying their trade at Intermediate level.
The north Kerry’s side’s conversion rate on Saturday was 50% but that percentage was never going to be enough against a slicker and more polished Mid-Kerry side. Their conversion rate was 58% but it was a highly impressive 79% in the first three quarters.
Mid Kerry failed to convert their last six attempts. The game was long over by that stage but Mid-Kerry will need to be ultra-efficient and economical if they are to take down East Kerry and win a first county title since 2008.
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