IT WAS BILLED as a heavyweight collision but it transpired to be the dampest of squibs.
Cork and Tipperary’s meeting in the All-Ireland senior hurling semi-final in Croke Park last August was historic and novel yet Tipperary’s domination rendered it a one-sided contest.
In the Cork camp, the disappointment took time to ease. Aidan Walsh was substituted during the second-half of that game and the nature of the display compelled him to apologise to Jimmy Barry-Murphy as he walked off the pitch.
“I felt very down about it. The success in winning Munster was a great highlight of the year and I really started to enjoy hurling. But after the Tipperary game was a real downer.
“Looking back on it, I haven’t watched the game, I couldn’t watch it back to be honest it was so disappointing. Cork being such a hurling county, we got a fair share of abuse from our own. Even our own local people at home were giving us abuse. That comes with it. You just have to take it on the chin.”
Walsh is firmly focused on atoning in 2015. He has suspended the dual player talk that trailed him in recent years by opting to concentrate on hurling.
“It was a relief to make the decision, I just want to drive on now and work as hard as I can and move on. When I walked off the field against Tipperary after being taken off, I said to myself, ‘I never want this to happen me again’.
“I have been lucky enough to win a lot at football. I looked at Jimmy and said, ‘Sorry’. Jimmy is massive in Cork. You always want to do good for him and do your best for him. That didn’t happen that day.
“I said to myself that this year I had to decide. I have been fortunate enough to have won a lot in football, to have won most things. So I said to myself I would put 100 per cent into hurling, see how that goes and see what could happen.”
And even though Walsh’s loyalties now lie with the hurlers, he hasn’t forgotten his former football colleagues.
“Football is very close (to me), even looking at the paper yesterday, seeing the footballers playing Tipp in the McGrath Cup, seeing all the boys playing and seeing all the, reading the report and stuff. I still keep in good communication with the lads.”
“The footballers and the hurlers are training in CIT so I meet a lot of the lads all the time. You’d be walking to training and you’d see the footballers training at the same time, but I’m just happy enough to move on.”