By John Harrington

The toughest experience that Galway footballer Shane Walsh has ever had to endure as an individual gave him a new appreciation of what it means to be part of a team.

While driving home from a challenge match last June against Cork, Walsh was involved in a tragic two-car accident that resulted in the death of the other driver.

Walsh was incredibly lucky to escape from the collision with just a broken wrist and finger himself, but the experience left psychological scars. It’s not something you recover from easily, but the support he received from his Galway team-mates helped the then 22-year-old massively.

“Obviously a lot of people go through a lot of dramatic things in their life and I don't think I'm any different in that sense,” says Walsh. “It depends on how you deal with it yourself. Between my family, the team, the management, my friends, they all helped me through it.

“They're such a joy to have with me and it just showed they're with me through the bad times as well as the good times. It nearly brought a tear to my eye going back into the dressing-room afterwards last year before the Mayo game.

“I remember going in just to see how the lads were ready, and it meant the world to me, to be honest, to be there.

“Everyone says football is such a drag and it takes so much out of your life, but to be honest it just makes so much of mine to be part of a team and to have it shown just how much I mean to them and how much they mean to me.

“That was massive for me last year to be able to go into the dressing-room and see the lads. When something like that (the accident) happens you, you're very much an individual. But it shows when you come back in like that and it affects the team and the team affects you, it shows how much it meant. Everyone loves to be cared for, I suppose. It was lovely to go into the dressing-room and see all the lads.

“It brought a smile to their faces seeing me back and it definitely brought one back to mine.”

Galway came together as a team last year to support Walsh, and this year they’ve looked like one on the field as well.

The county has produced no shortage of talented footballers in recent years, but until now moulding them together into a potent collective has proven problematic.

Players like Walsh himself were always capable of producing moments of magic on the football field, but too often Galway relied on such individualism and so inconsistency became one of their defining characteristics.

This year has been different. The most striking thing about their Connacht Championship success was their work-ethic and the manner in which the team has bought into a system of play.

It seems as though a group of talented footballers who starred at underage level but initially struggled to make the grade in the senior game have now found their feet under the management of Kevin Walsh.

“Yeah, as a team, everyone is developing,” says Walsh. “With the coaching and the management how they have bought everyone on, it has made a massive difference to us as a team.

“To be honest, it is just a team performance every day we go out now rather than individuals getting us over the line. It's a massive thing going forward that we can rely on the team like that rather than an individual.

“At senior level the physical stakes are a lot different to underage football. In the underage grade if you have the better of your man it's seen, the attitude isn't to just take him down at all costs like in the senior game.

“It's just that bit more ruthless at senior inter-county level. You're not just let play. You have to learn how to cope with that physical aspect of it. The older lads will always have the advantage over a lad coming straight out of the underage grades.

“Managers can be sometimes pressured into throwing you in at the deep-end if you've done well at underage, and some lads might survive and some mightn't. It's not a nice place for a young player to be in terms of your confidence if you struggle.

“You're on such a high coming in after doing well in the U-21 grade, but it can be taken away very quickly. In fairness to Kevin and the lads, they've managed it very well.

“Even the U-21 lads who have come in this year and benefited so much from working with Kevin and the coaching facilities available to them. It's made a massive difference to this team because all of the younger lads are being protected and coached in the right way.”

Two-time All-Ireland winning Galway manager, John O’Mahony, wrote in his autobiography last year that, above all other counties, the Tribesmen had the ability to come from seemingly nowhere in any given year and challenge for the All-Ireland title.

His reasoning was that there are always top-quality footballers in Galway at any given time, so if they can marry their natural talent with a team ethic and smart tactical approach they can be a match for the best.

It’s a theory that Walsh himself finds easy to buy into.

“I think, to be honest, every time someone pulls on a maroon jersey they have the belief that on any given day they can beat anyone,” he says.

“History shows that Galway are capable of anything, really. The problem is that we haven't done it on a consistent level.

“But this year we've consistently shown that we can go and beat any team. We just want to take this one game at a time and see where it gets us. But definitely when Galway players pull on that jersey, that belief comes inside you, and you want to bring it out and show the pride you have in it.

“The ability in County Galway is incredible. The standard of footballers that we have is crazy really. Kevin was on about 52 players that wouldn't come in this year and they're just as talented as the lads who are here. It just goes to show that in Galway there's so much self-belief and ability that we can produce anything.”

A Galway team bringing momentum and self-confidence to Croke Park has traditionally been a dangerous proposition. Walsh believes they can show just why once again in the coming weeks, starting with Sunday’s All-Ireland Quarter-Final against Tipperary.

“I'm a firm believer that when you get out of Connacht you can just open up and see where it gets you,” he says.  “Galway teams have always tended to do well in Croke Park. It's a lovely place to be going back to and nice to be going in there as Connacht Champions.

“This is my first time to be experiencing it and this is a nice reward so far. But we won't be taking our foot off the pedal and we'll see where it gets us.

“This is what you dream of. Obviously coming out of the U-21 you think that you're just going to walk into success, but you do have to put in the hard work and graft. Thankfully this year we've gotten the Connacht title and I'll treasure this because it's my first.

“We'll enjoy it while we can, but we won't be taking our foot off the gas. We'll try to go as far as we can go with the team and I believe there's only better to come with this Galway side.”