Gifted young talent a central figure in Cork's renaissance

GAELIC GAMES: KEITH DUGGANon the quick rise to prominence of the talented young Kanturk club man whose mature performances last season proved a major factor as Cork claimed their first All-Ireland football crown since 1990

THE CORK jersey that Aidan Walsh wore in last September’s All-Ireland final is framed in the clubhouse in Kanturk. Although the east Cork club is one of the oldest in the history of the association, Walsh was the first ever player from the club to win an All-Ireland medal in football or hurling.

Gifting the club with what is an irreplaceable memento for any player was Walsh’s acknowledgement of that and another indication of the maturity with which he has handled the swift transition from promising up-and-comer to his status this year as one of the dominant midfield players in the championship.

Everything has changed for Cork. Conor Counihan’s recent comments, where he wondered aloud if his players could summon the same level of desire that they had this time last year, sounded almost wistful. Last year, they were chasing. Now they are the chased. Walsh’s role in that journey cannot be understated.

Think back to a year ago when the Munster giants met in the Munster semi-final: Walsh scuffed a one-on-one chance against Kerry goalkeeper Brendan Kealy in the drawn match in Killarney and lasted just 16 minutes of the replayed match in Páirc Uí Chaoimh before he had to leave the field with a hamstring injury.

Given the crowded competition for a starting berth in the Cork midfield, those two games might have seen him drop down the pecking order. Instead, he grew incrementally as Cork embarked on an unfashionable slog through the qualifiers, kicking a point in a bruiser of a game against Wexford and starting in the match that might have been the turning point of Cork’s season: their third round qualifier against Limerick, which went to extra time.

Walsh rode his luck early on in that match when he appeared to drag Limerick midfielder John Galvin down in the square, an incident the referee interpreted as a free out. And he was eventually called ashore for the veteran Nicholas Murphy after 49 minutes, watching the thrilling conclusion and extra time from the bench.

Cork, of course, survived and played their next three games in Croke Park to win an All-Ireland for the first time since 1990. And Walsh played in every minute of those defining games.

“In over the two or three months of last year’s championship, there was no end to the improvements he made,” says Jerome Walsh, who has coached for many years with Kanturk and is an uncle of Aidan’s.

“He got a lot of criticism in his first few games but Conor Counihan and his selectors had the patience and faith to stick with him when others might have said we will wait until next year. But they persevered with him and with Ciarán Sheehan and that bore fruit come September.”

Jerome Walsh has watched Aidan play football since he was a boy. Walsh’s potential as a footballer was clear from his first days playing: he had the athleticism and strength to run the field and excel in under-12 games when he was still under-10.

He imagined that if he persevered with the game, his nephew could well play for Cork someday but admits he was taken aback by the rapidity which Walsh has made it to the top: an All-Ireland medallist, an All-Star and Young Player of the Year after his first full season. By any standards, it was a dramatic announcement of talent.

“It is only a couple of years since he was in the car going to matches with us and that he is out there in the middle playing – it is a bit of a fairy tale in a way.

“We were taking him to Cork matches – hurling and football – since he was very young. So he would appreciate what it means. But he worked very hard at it and always had that inner self-belief, that sense that nothing was going to beat him or that he would never give up. That stood to him through last year.”

The midfielder conceded during the starry autumn enjoyed by Cork that he would not have blamed Conor Counihan had he decided he wasn’t yet ready to command such a central role in the team. Persevering with him looks like a sure-thing in retrospect, but at the time it was a brave move.

After Kerry beat them in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Cork were in a lonely place, seemingly as far away as ever from making the breakthrough. When Walsh was drafted into the panel the previous year, he had mostly been deployed at wing back during squad sessions. But he always envisaged himself as a midfielder and since establishing himself there has spoken of the valuable advice he gained from Nicholas Murphy over the course of last summer.

“I know he definitely used to study Nicholas playing games, what he was doing,” says Jerome. “The same with Darragh Ó Sé. He was always taking notes on fielding and what strong players like those used to do on the field. His fielding stood out in the later part of last year but it was only when he was playing at under-16 that Aidan started to really work on his jumping because that is when goalkeepers start kicking from the ground. So it is only in the past few years that that aspect of his game has developed.”

Walsh’s ability as a dual player has meant he was an obvious attraction for the country hurling team as well. His decision to at least defer an invitation from Denis Walsh to join the panel, limiting his hurling to the county Under-21 team this year, was another indication of his ability to cope with just how quickly he has become a big figure in Cork’s intercounty plans.

“If you try and play too much you get injured and you end up playing nothing,” he reasoned, adding he hoped to play senior hurling with Cork in a few years. But this is a fine time to be on the football team.

Prior to last September, Cork had not won the Sam Maguire since 1990, the year Walsh was born. They have not won in Killarney in 16 years. Kanturk is just a 40-minute drive away from the Kerry town: the road is always busy for Cork-Kerry games in Fitzgerald Stadium.

Tomorrow, Cork travel with very high hopes. Walsh is well aware of the scarcity of Cork wins in Kerry from travelling to games like this with his uncle and father.

“But I don’t think young players think too much about history like that. It is just about winning. If you dwell on it too much, you mightn’t win anything. All going well, he has many years in front of him.”