BRICK BY BRICK
Michael Walsh’s 74 Championship appearances are proof he has built his legend...
‘He’s the best team player that’s ever played for Waterford — simple as’
AT the time, it felt like just another milestone in the career of Christy Ring that would never be bested.
When the doyen of Cork hurling pulled the final curtain down on a fabled career in 1962, there were so many strands to the conversation surrounding whether he was the greatest to ever grace the game.
One of those covered the full arc of his time in the blood and bandage, the 22 years that spanned three separate decades — the 1940s, ’50s and early ’60s.
When the final count came in, Ring’s cumulative total of 65 Championship appearances in an era of knockout, do-or-die competition, put him out on his own. No other player had even hit the 50-mark at that point in time. Even now, 56 years after his retirement, only two other players from the knock-out era come up to that celebrated mark.
Like Ring, Tipperary’s John Doyle had an indestructible quality about him, the pair both sharing the rare distinction of winning eight All-Ireland medals on the field of play, another record that lasted the ages. Doyle finished up on 54 Championship appearances, second to Ring, with Kilkenny’s Eddie Keher racking up 50 by 1977 and joining the same conversation about the true legends of the ash.
It took the arrival of the ‘back door’ qualifier system in 1997, which offered a second chance to players, to set the old records tumbling.
On a July Sunday in 2011, Tipperary goalkeeper Brendan Cummins found his name being invoked in the same sentence as Ring. On a Munster final day when Tipperary banged in seven goals past Waterford, Cummins equalled Ring’s record, one that had lasted 49 years.
Manager Declan Ryan felt it was worth marking. With seven minutes left on the clock, he withdrew Cummins to the acclaim of the crowd, the goalkeeper ‘almost blushing’ as he jogged to the sideline. In his memoir ‘Standing My Ground’, Cummins recalled: ‘I’d been struggling with all this talk of records. I wasn’t some kind of dinosaur that needed a pat on the back for matching the great man’s achievements.
‘In truth, given how fantastic a player Ring was and the fact that we played in different positions, I was very much in the ha’penny place compared to him.
‘It was difficult answering questions about the record after the match as Ring was a real legend of the game and I was just some fella from Ballybacon who happened to play in 65 Championship games.’
In the subsequent All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin, Cummins went out on his own in terms of the record, finding the moment marked by a pitch-side interview afterwards with TV presenter Hector Ó heochagáin. Cummins would bow out on 73 appearances. Ten-time All-Ireland winner Henry Shefflin made a brave bid to surpass him but finished on 71.
Tomorrow afternoon, Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh will outdo them all by featuring against Cork in the last round of the Munster Championship group stage.
Like Cummins, he wouldn’t dare to suggest he stands on the shoulders of Ring. Yet here he is, just a footballer from Stradbally who happened to play in 74 Championship games. Consecutively.
After five appearances off the bench in 2003, he has started every single Championship appearance since.
The breakdown of his career has been meticulously curated by GAA archivist Leo McGough. Going into this weekend, he had started in eight different positions. Centre half-back (22), centre-field (14), wing-forward (10), full-forward (9), centre half-forward (8), corner-forward (2), wing-back (2), full-back (1). Plus the five appearances as a substitute. Incredible.
His four All-Stars have been won in three different positions — two in the centre-back position he made his own with his characteristic one-handed ‘Brick flick’ to a teammate, one at midfield and one last year at number 12 at the tender age of 34. In April, he turned 35.
In what we’re told is ever more a young man’s game, the father-of-three continues to show an enduring quality. He has a reputation as a primary ball-winner, a robust, iron-willed competitor. A leader. Selfless to the end. The ultimate team player, as manager Derek McGrath has described him.
Yet who found it within himself to develop a scoring edge during last year’s Championship, popping up to score a goal as Waterford beat Kilkenny in Championship for the first time since 1959.
‘He’s the best team player that’s ever played for Waterford — simple as,’ said McGrath (left) in the wake of last year’s final defeat by Galway. ‘There’s no debate, that’s what he is. His humility and his crankiness at times, he’s just a different gravy. The chap has three kids under five and he’s just a brilliant man.
‘He doesn’t get enough credit for his guile as well. He gave the pass to Kevin [Moran] for the first goal, he was outstanding.’
He also gave Cork’s Mark Coleman his most testing time in the All-Ireland semi-final.
In this year’s round two Munster Championship game, when Waterford had an extra man following the dismissal of Tipperary’s Michael Cahill, it wasn’t 2016 Hurler of the Year Austin Gleeson who took over the sweeping duties in the half-back line as the spare man, it was Walsh, a testament to his reading of the play and hurling brain.
That he suffered the misfortune of the ball popping out of his hand in the build-up to the Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher goal that revived Tipperary was a cruel twist, though word has it he had sustained a bad finger injury at the time.
‘We all want to play for as long as we can but we don’t want to overdo it either,’ he said at the tail end of last year.
In December, the multi-talented dual player who lined out twice for the Waterford senior football team before committing to the hurlers, won his 10th senior county football medal with Stradbally.
Waterford’s Championship may already be over after losing their first three games ahead of tomorrow’s final round match against Cork at Semple Stadium but Walsh deserves his moment.
Let referee John Keenan find enough added time if he has to. Let the board go up for one of Waterford’s favourite sons when the clock ticks into the 74th minute.
And let him take the acclaim of the crowd. He deserves it.