T IS IN MY BLOOD..TO No time for domination MANAGE & COACH

Sligo job. I had been involved with teams since ‘94

time, but it was a great learning curve for me.”

Walsh was one of the mainstays of the last great Galway side and played until 2004 when he was 35. The year before, he won his third All Star so he was certainly earning his keep.

“When I was finished as a player I was ready to go long before that. I was quite happy. It wasn’t the case of begging the management to stay in.

“I probably would have gone to three years beforehand to be honest if the truth be known. Look, it’s a different gig it has its ups and downs,” he says of management.

“When you’re winning there is a great buzz about us. Particularly now when it’s so tactical when training ground moves come off it’s pleasing and you say, ‘Well that work was worth it’.

“As a player you’re doing your job. It was a one-to-one confrontation.

“I don’t think you take as many hits as the management take.

“If things are going well it’s a great place to be but if not, it’s challenging to be honest.

“With the way the media and social media has gone you’re there to be hit and analysed. And you’d love it if all sectors were analysed so deeply.

“You wouldn’t mind the analyser to be analysed as well; you wouldn’t mind the referee to be analysed as well; and you wouldn’t mind the reporters to be analysed as well. “Because at a certain level if you keep making mistakes in what you say it’s very easy to walk away and not write about it for another two weeks.

“Then someone else will write about us and that’ll do your job. But if I don’t do my job well I’m still out there Monday morning.” GALWAY boss Kevin Walsh has dismissed suggestions from his Roscommon counterpart Kevin Mcstay (above) that the two counties could dominate Connacht for the coming years.

The pair meet in the provincial decider for the third successive year at Dr Hyde Park on Sunday having shared the two previous titles and both sides boast a reasonably low age profile.

“The word ‘could’ is a very strong word,” said Walsh. “There’s been a lot of ‘could’ in in the last few years, since the early 2000s in Galway and also in Roscommon, and I wouldn’t be any way saying it’s going to be down to Roscommon and Galway going forward.

“Mayo are there, Sligo have had the two main college teams for the last three or four years so you don’t know what’s around the corner.

“It’s a matter of grabbing an opportunity every year it comes along. I wouldn’t be going as strong as saying that this is a watershed moment for two teams to dominate.

“That’s never the case. The word ‘could’ is dangerous. We’ll just do what we can in any given year and try and get the lads to take the chances they can when they arise.”

Roscommon romped to a surprise nine-point victory in last year’s final at Pearse Stadium though Walsh says that it won’t influence his thinking for Sunday’s game.

“I don’t think so. Last year was a very flat performance. We certainly wouldn’t be happy with it.

“But you know what, last year there was a huge aim of ours to get out of the Division Two.

“There was a lot of energy spent there and then you had trying to win at Croke Park for the first time and beating

Kildare there and then the

Mayo game in the

Championship.

“I’d say it was a very heavy, heavy season last year to get to that point where nearly every game was an All-ireland for us and to try and get out the division.

“Whether that took its toll or not… but certainly we’d hope that the experience of that will be in the locker for this year.” have to monitor but he’ll be tight to make the game.

“Donncha’s in the same boat. He’s got a niggling hamstring coming back and getting little pulls and so on but nothing major.

“He’s trying to make it but what you do there is you assume they’re not going to make it and if they do it’s a bonus.

“Brian O’driscoll, touch wood, is all fine. He played against Roscommon and he played a bit at the weekend with the club just to get some minutes under his belt. He’s fully training so he should be back in action.”

Mccarthy added that Brian Hurley, who recently returned from a long-term hamstring injury, is being considered for a starting role at Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

“He played against Roscommon, he’s training the same as everyone else so he’s considered the same as everyone.”