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Shane Walsh Admits Knowledge Gained From Kilmacud Hurlers Helped In Final Win

Shane Walsh Admits Knowledge Gained From Kilmacud Hurlers Helped In Final Win
Gary Connaughton
By Gary Connaughton
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Yesterday was a fantastic occasion for Kilmcud Crokes, with the Dublin club being represented in both codes at Croke Park in provincial deciders.

Of course, there was differing levels of expectation for each game.

Whereas their hurlers were seen as big underdogs against Klikenny's Ballyhale Shamrocks, their footballers were expected to overcome Westmeath outfit The Downs in the proceeding game. As it turns out, both fixtures would go with to form.

While they would not manage to complete a historic double on the day, the hurlers did still play a part in Kilmacud's success.

Shane Walsh reveals help from hurler in Leinster final

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Shane Walsh was the star man for Kilmacud, with the Galway native scoring 0-9 to lead his team to victory over The Downs. Having transferred to the club just before the start of the Dublin championship, it has been a whirlwind few months for the 29-year old.

As it turns out, watching their clubmates in the small ball a couple of hours before their game gave them a helping hand towards victory.

Speaking to RTÉ, Walsh said that seeing the hurling game gave them an idea as to how to warmup before the match, with Kilmacud going on to blitz their opposition early in the contest.

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It was tough conditions. We'd seen the hurling beforehand just how tough it was so it gave us a good platform to build our warm-up on.

The good start settled us from the word go and probably our experience then to control the game and know when to push the buttons and when to hold back.

We had a good lead going in at half-time and that was a credit to everyone who worked really hard. It was the same in the second half. In fairness to The Downs, they came back into it in the second half. We were just lucky enough we had enough to sit on.

We used experience from previous matches in that we know if you let teams back into matches, who knows what can happen with momentum? We even looked at the hurling beforehand that you saw the way Ballyhale were up at half-time and in fairness to the hurlers they came back into it. Who knows if the ball went another way or that goal didn't go in, it could have been a double.

That was the mentality going into the dressing-room at half-time and also you have certain standards you want to go after.

You want to keep working hard and keep the basics going well. I thought we had the game in the cusp of our hands for 45 to 50 minutes. The last 10 we lost a bit of control but that was credit to The Downs. They kept plugging away all game.

Kilmacud will now face Kerry's Kerins O'Rahillys or Limerick's Newcastle West in the All-Ireland semi-final after the turn of the years.

They will then be hoping to go one better than they did in the previous year, where they lost to Kilcoo in the decider.

SEE ALSO: Dublin GAA CEO Highly Critical Of €450K Cut To County's Funding

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