Shane Walsh overcomes injury, illness and 'the noise' to help Kilmacud Crokes to more glory

CHAMPIONS: Shane Walsh and Rory O'Carroll of Kilmacud Crokes celebrate after the Dublin County Senior Club Football Championship final. Photo by Daire Brennan/Sportsfile

To his collection of injuries and illness this year, Shane Walsh added the flu on Sunday but it didn’t prevent him turning on the charm for Kilmacud Crokes.

From hip and lower back issues to an ankle strain to a recent broken nose, the Galway forward has had a series of setbacks in 2023.

However, none of them compared with dealing with “the noise” surrounding his move to Crokes from Kilkerrin-Clonberne 14 months ago. That brought pressure and attention and following last January’s All-Ireland club final he and his fiancée Rachel headed to Australia as the inter-county season was getting underway.

Taken off five minutes into the second half of the Connacht final against Sligo, Walsh looked completely out of sorts. His appetite for the game was impacted by the coverage that the move to Dublin commanded.

As he celebrates a second Dublin SFC title and ponders another Leinster tilt, he is genuinely looking forward to the 2024 season with Galway.

“I have a bank of work to do. Obviously I've been chatting to Padraic (Joyce) and that in the last few weeks as well. Look, obviously you have one eye on that.

“It's been a completely different 12 months this year compared to last year. I suppose all the noise that was around with it was a huge off put for me coming back into inter-county season, whereas now I'm on my own terms and the noise is all over with.

“I'm just doing the same as every other player is doing and that's great for me because my focus is kind of clear and I'm able to just focus on my body and get myself ready and, look, I owe a lot to the Galway lads there. They rely on me at times as well in games and I didn't deliver and that's, you know, I expect it of myself as well and that wasn't there.”

Walsh believes he has had a reset as much as he’s still dealing with injuries.

“Coming off the back of the Galway season, I had an issue with my lower back and my hip. I need to get that sorted. It probably was going on two or three months towards the end of the season. You can't reset the clock in the middle of the championship.

“But there's no question about it, I struggled and thankfully I spent a bit of time after that getting that right. I kind of had a niggle from a previous ankle injury and that came back to kind of flare up. Thankfully, that's on the mend now. Bar the nose, I'm kind of getting there, it just takes a bit of time.”

Walsh was assured Crokes would come out on top on Sunday to complete the three-in-a-row.

“Ballyboden are a fine side, we didn't allow them to play. We got in their faces and we stopped them playing and we got to play the game on our terms.

"I always say, since I've come in, if we play the game on our terms, it's only ours to lose and thankfully we kind of complemented the work rate with the scores as well.”