Shane Walsh always believed in club final 'fantasy'

Growing up in Gurranebawn in Kilkerrin, Shane Walsh always envisaged himself playing in an All-Ireland Club final

Tue, 10 Jan, 2023 - 07:05

John Fogarty

Growing up in Gurranebawn in Kilkerrin, an All-Ireland club final would have appeared a world away for Shane Walsh yet he never thought like that.

Yes, it took quite a high-profile switch to Kilmacud Crokes to realise it but irrespective of the move he always envisaged himself playing in one.

“Ah well, I was always one that probably lived in the world of fantasy,” he smiles about the January 22 return to Croke Park. “I was always probably hoping to play in an All-Ireland club final some day. So yeah, look, times change and look, I’m sitting in a very lucky position that I’m in a dressing room that’s building for an All-Ireland club final.

“Obviously, Kilmacud were very close last year, they’ve a history of winning before, 2009 was the last time. It’s just a great place to be in, it’s another football match at the end of the day so I’m delighted any time to be getting out on the field playing football.”

The clash with Glen will be Walsh’s fourth consecutive game in Croke Park coming after the three he played there with Galway last summer. It makes a change for the 29-year-old who for too many seasons only aspired to play on the hallowed turf.

“For the first probably seven or eight years of my career, I had only played one game at Croke Park so to be playing three or four games in the last couple of months is lovely. Please God it will stay that way in time to come as well.

“You enjoy every moment, football is a pressure game, you have a short span and everyone thinks when you start off playing that you’ll have years playing it. But I’ve seen players coming and going and you see different things happening, injuries and whatnot so you just have to enjoy every moment you have out on the field.”

Having only joined the club at the end of last summer, Walsh, who made light of the injury he picked up towards the end of Sunday’s semi-final win over Kerins O’Rahillys, has no baggage from Crokes’ extra-time final defeat to Kilcoo 11 months ago.

Those late jittery moments have repeated themselves against Na Fianna in the Dublin final and this past weekend but the Galway star points out Crokes are still standing.

“Like I always say even when lads would be mentioning it, it’s like driving a car and looking through the rearview mirror. If you keep looking that way, the same things will happen again so we need to keep ploughing forward and work on the mistakes we’ve made. There are some trends that we need to fix as well, but it’s boding well that we got through because semi-finals are there for winning and thankfully we are within 60 minutes of the ultimate glory.

“You don’t need an expert to know that the game was left behind last year so, look, when you’ve two good teams going at it and going at it to the final whistle, who knows what can happen. We’ve all seen dramatic endings to games. I’ve seen it against Armagh as well. It’s those kinds of games you want to try and build on again.”