He may be long retired, but Tommy Walsh has been one of the stars of the GAA summer.
The Kilkenny legend has been a breath of fresh air on the airwaves, with his infectious love for hurling shining through for all to see. Featuring frequently on Newstalk's Off The Ball throughout the summer, the Tullaroan native has been riveting listening.
Speaking on Off The Ball on Thursday night in Galway, the nine-time All-Ireland winner revealed his first game for Kilkenny at underage level was against Galway. From there though, the story took a funny turn.
I marked Johnny Maher and he scored two points off me. I remember looking at the Galway lads and they had lovely gear. They were beating everyone around them. That was in the Tony Forristal Cup.
We went on to play Galway in the Nenagh Co-Op, which is the Under-16 All Ireland. Ger Farragher was in midfield and scored 16 points. I think most of them were from play....
But this is where the funny bit comes then. So we end up playing Laois in a Shield match and you'd be talking about motivations. Our motivation, if you won the Shield, you got a new pair of boots. Everyone got a new pair of boots. So our manager John McCormack was on to us, 'Lads, you have to win this. We have to get those boots'.
So we were playing Laois in the semi-final and we were beating them by two points with about a minute to go. They got a free, out on the 21 on the sideline. One of the Laois lads went to take it and I started shouting at him. I was on the goal, 'You're going to miss it, you're going to miss it!' This is before sledging or any of that.
The referee thought it was David Herity. David Herity was in goal. The referee thought it was him, so he brought David Herity out from the goal, started booking him... so everyone on the sideline was giving out about David Herity.
What did the referee do? He brought the free from the sideline straight in on front of the goal. Crazy stuff! What did the Laois lad do then? Put the ball down, buried it in the top corner. Laois beat us and we were going home without no boots.
David Herity didn't talk to me for three years. It wasn't always good news when we played Galway.
Walsh certainly has a way with words. Who knew boots were such commodities in Kilkenny?
That's probably the last time there were any incentives for Shield matches.
You can listen to Walsh's story in full here.
UPDATE: David Herity has had his say on Walsh's version of events. There maybe some parts of the story missing it seems.
Good man tommy, never let the truth get in the way of a good story 😂 https://t.co/IY6y1jFUhy
— David Herity (@DavidHerity) August 31, 2017
