Denis Walsh has a strong personality, but he looks to have his work cut out to mobilise a convincing championship challenge, writes SEÁN MORAN
THE APPOINTMENT of Denis Walsh to the contentious position of Cork senior hurling manager was part of a clear strategy by the appointment committee, convened by Croke Park, to entrust the task to someone without baggage or at least publicly declared views on the controversy that saw Gerald McCarthy eventually resign the managerial role to which he had been reappointed last year.
Walsh’s playing background and dual credentials are well known and he played in the second and third All-Ireland under-21 football victories during the county’s three-in-a-row 1984-86. A senior panellist in 1990 when Cork won the football and hurling double, he was on the teams that won senior All-Irelands in 1986 and 1990.
He is remembered by team-mates as “one of the more vocal guys in the dressingroom”, a player who always had clear and well prepared opinions on matches and one who contributed to discussion when management sought views.
Walsh’s coaching credentials are at local level where he led his own club St Catherine’s to an intermediate title and was in charge of Carrigtwohill when appointed last week. He also took charge of the Waterford footballers earlier in the decade.
Viewed as being independent minded and possessed of a strong personality, he will have his work cut out to mobilise a convincing championship challenge in less than two months.
He steps into a situation where the fraught atmosphere of the controversy that consumed Cork GAA is dissipating a little even if some of the divisions around the county may take a long time heal. With the hurlers back on the field and with two wins from the two outings under interim manager John Considine, the focus has readjusted to the field.
Those two victories put Cork in a strong position, four points clear of Clare at the foot of the Division One table but carrying a scoring difference that is an overhang from the makeshift teams that represented the county in the early rounds.
Although Walsh’s thoughts will inevitably be fixed on the championship meeting with Tipperary in May, the team needs a point from the matches against Kilkenny and Waterford to ensure survival in the top flight should Clare beat both Galway and Dublin.
Views of his appointment within the playing panel are said to be positive and he is regarded as a “progressive” coach. Although the preference of the players would have been to work with one of the backroom team under which they won All-Irelands in 2004 and ’05, such as Ger Cunningham, the view of the appointment committee was that the role should go to someone not seen to be aligned.
Walsh addressed the players briefly after the victory over Limerick on Sunday and although not much was said, his appointment has made a good impression. Cork forward Niall McCarthy had worked with the new manager during his curtailed stint with Carrigtwohill and apparently “spoke positively” about him.
He is seen to have chosen a strong team of selectors. Pat Buckley from the Milford club was centrefield on the 1990 All-Ireland team with Walsh. Ballinascarthy’s Gerry Ryan is a former schoolmate of the manager and won a county medal with Carbery before going on to coach whereas Pa Finn, from St Finbarr’s, is a well-known hurling personality.
Finn managed the county camogie team to the senior All-Ireland in 2002, thwarting in the final Tipperary’s bid for four-in-a-row.
The new management team couldn’t have had a tougher start to their tenure. On Sunday they travel to Nowlan Park to take on All-Ireland champions Kilkenny, whose victory last September deposed Cork from the top of the roll of honour.
Walsh will be the seventh Cork manager – after Jimmy Barry-Murphy, Tom Cashman, Bertie Murphy, Donal O’Grady, John Allen and Gerald McCarthy – in the period since Brian Cody took over Kilkenny 11 years ago.
