Walsh determined to deliver for Kanturk after All-Stars jaunt

The Duhallow side clinched promotion on Sunday. 

Tommy Walsh battles for a score for Kanturk in the McCarthy Insurance Group Cork County Senior A Football final; Kanturk vs Éire Óg at SuperValu Pairc Ui Chaoimh. Picture: Larry Cummins

Tommy Walsh hummed and hawed, and then hummed some more, over whether or not to attend Friday’s All-Star ceremony in Dublin.

Nominated for the first time, the All-Star banquet fell less than two days before Kanturk’s maiden appearance in the Cork Senior A football final.

Walsh, who wore tears in his eyes following Sunday’s topflight-securing victory over Éire Óg, was refreshingly open about the paranoia that plagued him in recent weeks surrounding the event in Dublin's RDS and how if he made the trip it might in some way affect his final performance at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Each one of his Kanturk teammates told him to drive on and don the tux. Their reassurance and backing settled him. And so, the tux was indeed donned, albeit there was to be no driving. Himself and his now An Ghaeltacht-resident older brother, Aidan, flew from Farranfore on Friday morning for an event where Tommy was one of two Cork footballers nominated alongside Steven Sherlock.

No late night in the capital ensued and he landed in the backdoor at home in Kanturk at around 11am on Saturday morning.

The promise he made to himself was that if he showed up in Dublin then he had to show up at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. The promise was spectacularly honoured.

Walsh assisted Brian O’Sullivan’s opening point for Kanturk. It was upon the change of ends, though, where his influence went to heights matched only by first cousin Paul.

Modifying their approach at half-time, risk was removed from Kanturk’s forward play. Nothing was kicked in over the top to where Alan Walsh impatiently waited.

With Éire Óg sitting in a deep defensive block around the arc, as they had done all season, the dual operators from Duhallow were content to carry possession back and forth along the 45-metre line until an opening could eventually be manufactured.

The two players patiently controlling and recycling possession were Tommy and the aforementioned Paul. Their ability to inject pace from almost standing position created gaps where there appeared to be none. In doing so, they nullified their opponents’ defensive set.

Tommy had the secondary assist for Kanturk’s second half-opener. He assisted their next point, thrown over by Paul. His two-pointer on 51 minutes - a mirror image of what he produced in Ballybofey in mid-June - returned Kanturk in front.

There were 28 second-half minutes played when Kanturk fashioned a point that didn’t bear the fingerprints of Paul or Tommy. The latter’s Dublin trip hadn’t done him the slightest bit of harm.

“I hummed and hawed. I was very paranoid about it, but the lads gave me the go ahead. All the players said, drive on,” Tommy explained.

“The one thing about going then, I had to show up on this stage. That was one thing in the back of my mind. We flew back down Saturday morning. I wanted to be home as early as possible, so I was back in the door for around 11am on Saturday morning.” Bar his 53rd minute substitution at the end of their opening hurling game against Fr O’Neill’s on August 1, Tommy played every minute of all 11 championship games across both codes.

“It was Colin [Walsh] that said it a couple of weeks ago, we are not playing hurling or football, we’re playing for Kanturk. That’s very important to us. My father, what he’d do for this club, he played junior all the way up. This is as much for them as it is for us. It means so much to all of us. We’re very passionate in that sense. It is just amazing.” 

Silverware and topflight promotion were just reward for a season where they took down Blackrock, Sars, and Carbery Rangers across the two codes, a trio of clubs who’ve tasted Premier Senior glory in Cork over the past 10 years.

Having done so very little wrong when falling to the Barrs in their first-ever Premier Senior hurling semi-final, there was an unmatched determination to ensure the football journey did not end in similar heartache.

“In this game, you're going to get nothing handed to you. We probably had our best football session of the year the Wednesday night after we lost to the Barrs because we just wanted to win something so badly,” Tommy continued.

“That drive is in the group so much that we need to win something here, and just because we had the heartbreak against the Barrs, which probably still stings to this day, it is a testament to the group that our best football session was three days after that match.

“Coming down the stretch here, it was there and it wasn't. We had all the ball, but the scoreboard, it wasn't changing. It was level, point up, point down. Doubts start creeping in. Last three years, last three winners have beaten us. You're wondering is this going to be another one of those days. But big players stood up and it started to click.

“It’s always been a dream to get Premier Senior in both. It is only the Barrs and Newcestown. It is a nice bracket to be in.”

CORK SPORT

A collection of the latest sports news, reports and analysis from Cork.