By John Harrington

Shane Walsh will play his tenth season of championship football for Galway next year, but the passing of the years has done nothing to dull his passion for the game.

Over the course of a 45 minute zoom call yesterday, the Kilberrin-Clonberne man could hardly have been more animated about his love of the game and his determination to keep improving.

The Galway captain is the very definition of a sportsman with a growth mindset.

He’s continually thinking about the game and trying to figure out ways to continue getting better.

At the age of 28 now, where can he find the room for further improvement?

“A lot of my game probably comes down to decision making,” says Walsh. “I'm probably one of those players who is trusted to make something happen in a game and you're trying to see, did I make the best decision in certain scenarios?

“You won't always get it right, but what I'd say to any young lad is that it's all about repetition. For me, when I was a young lad, I was outside the house here kicking the ball off the wall every single day and just kept working on that. Left foot, right foot.

“My Principal in national school (Peadar Brandon) had a huge part to play in that because he was the one who was onto me about kicking off my left foot. That's stood to me ever since. When I reflect on the year gone by, I'm looking at plays that I made, decisions that I made and it's a case of watching the good scenarios, the bad ones.

“A good scenario for me, for example was in the Connacht final. The run I made for the goal, it was a 50 or 60 yard run and at the end of it I could have shot, but the right decision for me was to give it to Damo who was in the better position and then he scored the goal. It's little things like that. It's the simple things in games that make the best players who they are.”

Walsh is continually watching matches on TV or in person where possible, trying to learn from the other top players in the game.

“Just take Michael Murphy, such a team player - nearly always makes the right decision with the ball and for the team,” he says. “It's a case of doing it for the team. Aside from decision making, you can hone in on conditioning.

“Everyone to this day will know that I'm fairly quick so for me it's the endurance side of things. Can I work harder? Are there things I can tweak to get more out of my game.

“Then it's mobility as I get older, making sure that your body is able for the demands. Everyone has to be careful with that because if you don't look after your body, it just won't be able for the demands of inter-county football.

“They're the specific things I'd look at myself but you'd spend hours watching games, thinking, 'would I have made the same decision as that player in that position.' Because I don't know it all. But I am willing to learn.

“Even like, you're always coached to solo with your right foot and right hand, but by watching someone like David Clifford - he often crosses the ball from his left foot to his right hand and what that enables him to do is it lets him lift his head if he's in a tight scenario.

“He can look up, control it and so on. If you watch the goal that I set up for Damo, I got away from Patrick Durcan by crossing the ball that way because I wanted to use my left hand to stop him coming in to take the ball off me. They're the little things that go through my head. It's probably football on the brain all the time for me.”

If Walsh has a mantra, it’s that you must be willing to make mistakes. He’ll always back himself to take a shot on in a pressurised position and is never too hard on himself if he isn’t successful.

“We've a young lad in our club and he'd be saying to me in training that he's afraid to shoot - even though he's in the best position,” says Walsh.

“I said why wouldn't you shoot? He said because I'll miss. I just said you'll never know if you don't shoot, like. I told him to watch a bit of Michael Jordan. Different sport, but the same scenario.

“You're trusted with the shot. He's been trusted with a shot numerous times in the NBA and has missed them. So he doesn't always get them. Obviously you'll hear the famed stories but you'll also hear the ones he's missed.

“For me I feel like I back myself to have that ability to get the score. Not all the time will it go over the bar, but it won't be for the want of trying. I'm not going to regret something I didn't do.

“I'm always saying to myself to regret the things you do, don't regret the things you don't. Because the things you don't, you'll never know. Whereas at least if you've did it you made your best effort at it and it didn't work out. But sometimes you'll make your best effort and it will work out.

“A lot of that comes back to practice. Essentially if you practice it there's more of a chance you’ll repeat it under pressure.”

He points to the 2018 Connacht Final for evidence to back up his theory. Walsh scored three brilliant and very different points in that victory over Roscommon that bore all the hallmarks of unrehearsed genius rather than patient planning.

It turns out the reality was something quiet different.

“I'll never forget it,” says Walsh. “That Thursday night before the Connacht Final was a really windy, wet day. It had been a lovely week up to that. And I went into Pearse Stadium taking a couple of shots just doing a bit of practicing myself. The three points I kicked from play in that game were all carbon copies of what did.

“If anyone videoed that session I did in Pearse Stadium, there was a ball out in the far corner and I chipped it up and did a little dummy to myself and kicked the ball over my shoulder over the bar. It happened in the game when we over-turned the kick-out.

“The same with controlling the wind. I always look to caress the ball with the wind because I can kick with both feet. And like that, I was trying to control the ball with the wind. Another one was kicking it on the run when you're playing with the wind.

“Things like that that no-one sees and obviously for me it's refreshing for me because after the game people were talking about it and I was like, it's only because I have done it already that I know how I got that result. It wasn't a case of hitting the ball up into the wind and it went over the bar.

“Theres a good bit of theory behind it too.”

As a student of the game who is always keen to learn from others, it’s no surprise that Walsh is looking forward to working with the Galway football team’s newly appointed coach, Cian O’Neill.

There isn’t a more experienced inter-county coach in the game than Kildare-man O’Neill who has previously managed his native county and had coaching stints with the Cork, Mayo, Kerry, and Limerick footballers, as well as the Tipperary hurlers.

“No more than when we had Paddy Tally there as well before, for me I'm trying to learn and the only way you learn by approaching these people and seeing the way they're thinking,” says Walsh.

“They'll see after a while of training that there's something else you could be doing. For me, that's invaluable. That you can have that sort of person come into you. I'm very lucky to be part of an inter-county set-up that has it. For me it's a great way to learn. I'll build a relationship now, no doubt, with Cian as we go forward when he gets on board with us.

“Just see his way of working. He's been involved in so many teams going back to Tipp with Liam Sheedy, Kerry in 2014 with Eamonn Fitzmaurice, he was obviously over Kildare and we played Kildare numerous times in that period as well, then he was with Cork. He's going to bring a vast amount of experience to it. He seems like a really enthusiastic guy as well in relation to the sport.

“So that's huge, to have that come into your dressing-room. Just really looking forward to him coming in.”

Since reaching the All-Ireland semi-final in 2018, this current Galway team has struggled to hit the heights many believe they are capable of.

Walsh also thinks there’s a lot of potential in the team, and knows it’s time they turned that into solid achievement.

“Yeah, definitely,” he says. “Galway is a big county with a huge tradition behind it as well. Obviously, look, we've to try to knock into that a certain amount but also realise that the history of Galway is one thing, but making our own history now is the next thing.

“Covid has brought about its challenges. We started off 2020 very well and Covid came along and it's just been very difficult since that to get to that level. It's hard to pinpoint one area to it. Obviously you could see the touchings of it in relation to our first half against Mayo versus the second-half then. You'll probably see it some ways that we've an area to work on.

“No more than the likes of James Horan and Mayo, they didn't perform consistently for 70 minutes and yet they were in an All-Ireland Final. It's just about maybe eking out the best of us in our worst moments and then obviously making hay when the sun shines and we are in a good moment.

“That's probably something we should look at in 2022, when we go through a lull in a game that we're not conceding much in games. And when we're on top that we really punish teams. That's what the best teams are doing.”

“You see Dublin doing it for long periods of time. Tyrone did it against Mayo in the All-Ireland Final. They weren't on top for long parts of the game but they had their spells in the game and when they did they made it count.

“Sometimes it comes down to those moments in games. Who knows if Mayo got the goal chance in the first half or the penalty went in, who knows what way those games would have went.

“There are things for us to work on and obviously Cian coming on board will definitely help that as well in terms of his experience and the different set-ups that he's been in. I suppose I'm enjoying the break in the last couple of weeks but at the same time I'm eagerly looking forward to the start of 2022.”