Walter Walsh of Kilkenny poses for a portrait with the Bob O'Keeffe cup at the 'GAA; People, Objects & Stories' exhibition during the launch of the 2024 Leinster GAA Senior Hurling Championship in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.
By Paul Keane
As the clock ticks down to an Allianz Hurling League final that will proceed without him, it's all about clinging to the positives for Walter Walsh.
The experienced Kilkenny forward is recovering from a significant groin injury, suffered in the Round 3 win over Offaly in February, so won't feature against Clare in Thurles on Saturday evening.
Neither will he play in the first half of the Leinster championship though instead of feeling sorry for himself, Walsh has learned to look to the silver lining.
"I could have needed an operation and be gone for longer so I'm trying to be optimistic about it," said Walsh at the launch of the Leinster senior championships at Dublin's Collins Barracks. "That was the fear. And sure that could be four or five months, that could be the season gone."
All going to plan, Walsh may see game time in Kilkenny's mid-May provincial encounter with Carlow, a near three-month lay-off though something he has become grudgingly accustomed to at this stage.
"Last year as well I picked up an eight-week injury around the end of the league, and the year before that I did it as well," said the 32-year-old. "It is unfortunate, 2022 was my groin, last year it was my hamstring and back to my other groin now. But look, there are players who have got far worse injuries as well."
All of which means that for Walsh it will be a watching brief this weekend when Kilkenny take on Clare, the same as it was for their impressive semi-final win over great rivals Limerick.
"We didn't focus too much on it being Limerick, it was a game we needed to win, a semi-final of the league," said Walsh, a three-time All-Ireland winner. "Obviously we were aware that Limerick had beaten us in the last couple of finals. Some lads might have used that for an extra bit of motivation but you treat it like any other game. It was the semi-final of the league so whether you're playing Limerick or any other team, you're going to try to win it. That was our mindset."
Walter Walsh of Kilkenny is helped to his feet by physio Shane O’Brien, left, and Dr Joanne Cuddihy, after picking up an injury during the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 Group A match between Kilkenny and Offaly at UPMC Nowlan Park in Kilkenny. Photo by Tom Beary/Sportsfile.
Walsh said it'll be a similar outlook this weekend against Clare.
"There are a lot of players on our team who haven't got a National League medal," noted the former All-Star. "It's a national final so it's massive. You want to win it. 'Only the league' is kind of talked about but these are all games that teams are trying to win. You can look at it any way you want but you want to win every game you go out to play.
"It is a bit of a narrative too that the Championship is around the corner but we're playing Saturday, we're not going to be thinking that we're playing Antrim in a couple of weeks, that's not going to come into any conversation. And no-one in Clare is going to be saying, 'We're playing Limerick in two weeks'. They may be trying to introduce a few players, you don't know. But they're going out to win the game, I'm sure."
Whilst beating Limerick was a milestone of sorts for Kilkenny following a series of high-profile losses to the Shannonsiders, in league and Championship, Clare will approach the final looking to get a black and amber monkey off their own backs. The Banner have lost to Kilkenny in each of their last two All-Ireland semi-finals.
"We'll train Thursday night, there'll be a discussion about that I'm sure," said Walsh of the rivalry. "They're going to be gunning for us, realistically."
Ultimately for Kilkenny it is a journey which they hope will finish this season with the MacCarthy Cup returning to Noreside. When Walsh picked up his third All-Ireland medal in 2015, having won his first three years earlier after memorably firing 1-3 on his debut in the 2012 final replay win over Galway, he couldn't have expected the barren period that followed.
Is it a weight on the shoulders of Kilkenny players that it could soon be a decade without an All-Ireland win?
"I don't think it's a weight but there are definitely a lot of lads in our dressing-room with no All-Ireland medals," said the Tullogher Rosbercon man who propelled his club to All-Ireland success at Croke Park in January.
"When I came in with Kilkenny, at 20, 21 years of age, it was a dressing-room full of All-Ireland medals. That's the difference. It's not a weight. You don't say, 'We haven't won this in 10 years, we have to win this year'. You just take it step by step, looking to push on in every game.
"Our intention this weekend is to win against Clare. In the Leinster championship then after that, it's game by game. You don't think, 'We have to win the All-Ireland this year or it's a bad year' or anything like that."