BRICKS & MORTAR
Michael Walsh today starts his 63rd Championship game for Waterford, whose recent revival is built upon
THERE was too much going on in the GAA world that particular May afternoon in 2003 for any attention to be paid to the 20-year-old dual player who came off the bench for his Waterford debut. Replacing Tony Browne, in a comfortable win over Kerry, this was the public’s first introduction to Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh. But the public were distracted.
Joe Kernan’s Armagh side, who had won the county’s first All-Ireland title only nine months earlier, had just been ransacked by Monaghan in Clones and Cork’s footballers were humbled by Limerick in Paírc Uí Chaoimh at a time when Colin Corkery was still kicking points for the Rebels. It was that long ago.
Walsh’s debut may not have even caused a ripple but he spent the rest of that summer coming off the bench for Waterford. And by the following year, he was trusted enough to start games.
This afternoon’s All-Ireland semifinal against Cork will be the 63rd consecutive Championship match that Walsh will start for the Déise. Still there, right at the centre of things.
There are many parts that into making Derek McGrath’s side possibly the most interesting in Gaelic Games at present such as Austin Gleeson’s rare and extravagant gifts with hurl in hand or Jamie Barron’s energy not to mention Tadhg de Búrca’s positional play. Even the manager’s own candour.
And there’s also Waterford’s own version of the generation game. The way McGrath has skilfully managed to bridge the generation gap within his own team is one of his finest achievements.
Gleeson and Barron were still in primary school when Brick was replacing Brown; Kevin Moran made his debut at a time when Kilkenny had yet to win the first of their four-in-a-row All-Ireland titles. Even Noel Connors, hardly old at 27, is considered a veteran given that Davy Fitzgerald handed him his debut back in 2009.
However, it is Walsh and Moran who embody Waterford’s old guard – two veterans that have become vital cogs in the machine that McGrath and his team have developed.
And in this summer’s journey back to Croker, nobody has done as much for the Déise as Brick Walsh, who has playing with the vim and vigour of a man 10 years younger.
And the funny thing is that many in his own county wondered over the winter if he should come back at all? It seemed like that tense, terrific evening in Semple Stadium when Waterford just fell short to the Cats would have been a fine way to shuffle off-stage to wide acclaim. But Brick, who is held in great affection in the county, decided he wasn’t finished despite a fear that he would sully his legacy by returning for another season.
‘Like one of those ageing heavyweight fighters who comes back for one final bout,’ as one close to the camp suggested.
But there has been no sense of the washed-up fighter about Walsh this summer. His first-half performance against Wexford was superb. He scored the critical goal just before half-time against Kilkenny and didn’t even take the time to celebrate or clench his fist, simply running back into position.
‘There is so much affection for Brick that some would have liked to see him go out on a high last year. But he has been a revelation this year,’ says Dermot Keyes, a sportswriter with the Munster Express, who has been reporting on the ups and downs of Waterford hurling for 18 years.
Keyes insists there has never been a Déise player with the positional sense of Walsh. While everyone praises his competitive spirit, it is overlooked that he so often pops up in the right place at the right time.
‘And it’s rare you will see him waste a pass,’ says Keyes.
Walsh has made the one-handed batted pass his own. Even when he was in his pomp as a ball-winning centre-back, skippering the Waterford sides of the late Noughties, he was never the type of centre-back to drive the ball 60 yards down the field. Before short-passing became fashionable, he always looked for a team-mate 20 or 25 yards away.
McGrath’s decision to transform him from an All-Star centre-back to a ball-winning, physical attacker may yet turn out to be the masterstroke of his reign.
In the twilight of his career, he managed to deliver probably the most influential display of his career against Wexford.
Time and again, he won the ball, creating chances or drawing frees. In the opening 20 minutes against Wexford, he showed that turning him into a forward was just another decision which McGrath got right.
It was Kevin Moran, though, who popped up with the goal this time. Moran is four years younger and offers more energy around the middle third but his bond with McGrath – they teach in the same school – was critical in ensuring everyone bought into the new system McGrath unveiled in 2015.
And as the wider public were a little unsure about what the manager was trying to implement, Moran became a very public voice of support.
‘He’s just constantly thinking the whole time,’ Moran said back in 2015. ‘He comes up with different things at different times that you are taken aback by. And they seem to work more often than not.
‘It’s great when these things are thrown at you. It makes you sit back, don’t take anything for granted. He’s an exceptional man.’
And Moran is an exceptional leader for McGrath. His goal against Wexford typified everything brilliant about his game. He is not a renowned goal-getter, but he popped up at just the right time – when his team needed it. It’s indicative of the leadership he’s displayed for years.
BACK in 2014, at the start of their reign, fearful of how heavy defeats were affecting the confidence of the team, McGrath and Dan Shanahan reacted to the
‘DECISION TO MOVE WALSH TO ATTACK MAY BE SEEN AS A MASTERSTROKE’ ‘HE COMES UP WITH DIFFERENT THINGS THAT YOU ARE TAKEN ABACK BY’
shellackings handed out by Kilkenny and Clare to keep the team in the dressing-room and talk things through. It is when the older guard first came to the fore.
Neither Walsh nor Moran are shouters.
‘They wouldn’t ball people out of it, or barrack them,’ Keyes explains. ‘Not for them, this whole idea of banging their hurl against the table to get people riled up.
‘They would rather lead by example, do what they do on the pitch, not what they say.
‘And that has certainly been the case this summer.’
The influence of Fergal O’Brien, Waterford’s physical conditioning coach, can’t be understated when considering how the two veterans have played this summer. There was a sense that the pair, especially Moran, played their better hurling earlier in the year during the 2016 season. Not this time. Whatever way that O’Brien has tapered the programme for the pair, it has worked. They have peaked for late July and August. And now, here they are, back in August. Amid the youthful zest of the Bennetts, Patrick Curran, Austin Gleeson and Barron, Brick Walsh and Kevin Moran are still there. The old guard. The steady hands. And experienced voices in the dressing-room, reminding the youngsters that they have known more fallow days and their moment is now. If Waterford do the seize the day in Croke Park this afternoon and find a route into the All-Ireland final, it may well be one of the older hands that guide them there.