A familiar venue with different vibes for Walter Walsh on Saturday.
The towering forward will again take to the field for a Kilkenny side in Croke Park, but this time for Tullogher-Rosbercon in their All-Ireland club junior hurling championship final against St Catherine's of Cork.
Expect a considerably smaller crowd than the full house that witnessed his most recent visit last July. Though in the club’s first trip to Jones’ Road since losing the junior club decider to Dripsey (also Cork) in 2009, a shot at redemption is all the motivation that Walsh needs.
"When the ball gets thrown in, you don't think of the crowd or the stadium you're playing in," he tells RTÉ Sport. "It comes down to the ball and your will to win.
"It's been a long 15 years. We were competitive up intermediate for a number of years and we dropped back down junior three or four years ago. Just lucky to get out of junior into the intermediate grade and relishing the challenge Saturday after 15 years.
"We obviously lost that day so it's something we'll be trying to make right this time. I was very young. I think they were the better team on the day. I was corner-forward that day myself and didn't have my best game ever. It was a massive occasion that time but it's all about winning that game when you're there.
"When I look back now you might appreciate it that bit more, these finals don't come around too often and I think mentally you'd be in a better place to prepare for it. It does hit home a bit more as you get a bit older.
"I was after winning a minor All-Ireland with Kilkenny and then a county and Leinster final with Tullogher in 2008 and I thought 'this hurling thing is great, you win all the time!’. I found out the next year it's not like that because I lost three All-Ireland finals in 2009 [club, schools and county minor].
"You celebrate winning a county final like you would winning an All-Ireland final with Kilkenny. It means so much to myself and obviously the people in our parish and club."
The club is based in the south-east corner of Kilkenny, the village of Rosbercon around 9km from Tullogher and just across the River Barrow from New Ross in Wexford. In February ’09, Walsh was a 17-year-old Leaving Certificate student and hurler at Good Counsel College just over the border.
These days, he teaches science, agricultural science and biology back in his old school and estimates that half of the 33-man Tullogher-Rosbercon panel have been his pupils at one stage. Two of his team-mates, Niall Mooney and Marty Murphy, are also current sixth-year students.
"It's a weird dynamic," he admits with a smile. "You're winning county finals with these lads and you're training with them.
"They definitely see a different side to me in the classroom and on the field because you're training and trying to relax and it's a bit of fun and a bit of craic whereas in here you have to be a bit more professional. I'd say they're kind of looking at me and thinking ‘does this lad have two different personalities or what's going on?’. But you have to be professional and treat those lads the same as all the other students.
"You're here in school to do a job, to educate, and outside of school you're a normal person and maybe the lads might struggle to see that as well.
"All the lads would come to school here. Even last year's crop of sixth years, I think I was teaching six or seven of the lads who are on the club team as well. It is strange, but if we win on Saturday it won't be strange at all, we'll enjoy it.
"I'm teaching here six years and I could see a lot of these lads that are really, really talented. They're all on the teams here, and it's hard to make a team in Good Counsel, hurling or football. There are loads of Tullogher lads on it whereas when I was here there wasn't many or us at all on teams.
"So I could see talent coming but it's great to see the proof of it by winning a county final and going to play in an All-Ireland final now."
Walsh is quick to point out that at 32 he’s not the eldest on a panel refreshed by players that got to the club’s first Kilkenny minor A final in 2021.
"We have a very young team. In the last three years there have been so many new players starting with the club.
"There are a few of us that have been there a long time. Myself and Pat Hartley would have played 15 years ago. Pat is centre-back and 37 so I'm not the oldest anyway. Eoin Ryan our sub-goalkeeper is a year older than me as well.
"The likes of Donncha O'Connor, Conor Hennesssy, Cian O'Donoghue as well. These young lads really push us on as well as a team. They've been the driving force, along with the bit of experience as well. It's very, very positive for the future us as well."
Kilkenny lost two more of their most recent All-Ireland winners to retirement over the winter in Pádraig Walsh and Richie Hogan but ‘Wally’ will contend for a black and amber jersey again this year, the pain of successive final defeats to Limerick assuaged somewhat by his marriage to Vicky in August and Tullogher-Rosbercon’s subsequent winning run.
"I felt good throughout the club campaign, no injuries or anything like that. I felt fresh and I'm delighted to be back with Kilkenny.
"My focus has been completely with Tullogher-Rosbercon. But I will be throwing an eye over the Walsh Cup game later this evening, after we train ourselves, and see how lads are going. There’s going to be massive competition [for places].
"There are a lot of lads retired at my age, but if I didn’t think that I could give something and we could go on to lift more silverware this year I wouldn’t be involved, even though I love wearing the Kilkenny jersey."
Walsh won three All-Ireland titles in his first four years as a senior - 2012, ’14 and ‘15 - as part of a Brian Cody outfit that collected eight in 10 but the Cats are approaching a decade without Liam, and it is now Limerick who are the five-in-a-row chasers with the aura of invincibility.
"They have every right to think like that," Walsh says of the triumphant Treaty team. "Obviously, Limerick are the team are the team to beat and they’re at the top.
"I came into a team like that as well. You just think that you’re going to keep on winning, that this is the norm. But it doesn’t work out like that.
"You’re always hungry to play with Kilkenny and to win. We’re not far away from winning an All-Ireland. We have been very competitive. I know we have been beaten in the last four All-Ireland [finals] but we’re winning Leinsters, we’re getting to All-Irelands. I think the team is improving, the management is excellent as well.
"I’d be very optimistic about the coming year."
