Loyal coaches, players defy state of club game
Whereas Walsh is at the end of his first year at the helm at Cork Constitution and happy to continue, Moylan has completed three seasons with Shannon and is seriously considering his future.
At a time when coaches at provincial level are coming and going Alan Solomons from Ulster to Northampton, Gary Ella under pressure at Leinster, worst of all, Declan Kidney to Gwent it is heartening to see two former players remain loyal to their clubs and prepared to put in the hours on the training pitch to get results.
In spite of the success of Saturday's big day out at Lansdowne Road, the club game in this country remains in a state of flux.
Everything has been geared so much to the provinces that the clubs have taken a back seat.
The Union believes that the players of the future will come through their academies etc, but many good judges ridicule that notion. They look at clubs like Shannon and Con who have been ruthlessly stripped of their best talent and yet have kept finding the replacements. The man of the match on Saturday was Jerry Flannery. He was playing his second big match in less than 24 hours. Can you create and nurture that kind of heart and spirit in an academy? No way.
And while the likes of Moylan and Walsh will do their damnedest for their clubs, they will run a mile from anything to do with academies and the like.
As for the likelihood of seeing the cream of the crop being lured away once again, Moylan was entirely philosophical: "They all have aspirations to play professional rugby and we will do everything to help them.
"But players see what we are about and they want to join us."
In other words, Shannon are here for a long time, no matter how many stars are lured on to greater things.
And will Moylan be around to mould the next generation? "I don't know if I could take them any further, I'll think about it. I've done three years, and two before that learning the ropes. I'll see but this could be it."
Brian Walsh, to his credit, didn't use the absence of Ultan O'Callaghan, Pat McCarthy and Cian Mahony as an excuse, though he could have.
As for his own future, Walsh seemed a little unsure.
Who could blame a club coach for becoming disillusioned and deeply frustrated by the current situation where they don't know who will be available to them until the morning of most matches?
Nor will it get any better in the foreseeable future with the Celtic League destined to ramble along in its ramshackle way.
"It is the way it is and will be like that for the next couple of years. You've got to work the best you can around it although it is a pity that matches clash so often."
Walsh admitted: "We didn't have another back or forward to come in so it was last ditch stuff really.
"David Pusey played 70 minutes for Munster on Friday and had a fabulous game and he put in a hit in the 79th minute and I nearly shuddered myself.
"He's a model professional and Jerry Flannery did the same for Shannon."
While you have players like Flannery, Pusey and others prepared to give their all on the pitch, and Moylan and Walsh willing to put in the hard hours behind the scenes, the club game will survive in this country.
Whether it will be capable of providing great players to the provincial and national sides, as it has done for well over a century, is another matter and a subject that is surely exercising the minds of the masters at 62 Lansdowne Road.
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