Tommy Walsh thinks the fact that, for once, Kilkenny were not on the tip of everyone’s tongues helped them regain Liam McCarthy in 2011.
Having seen Tipperary crush their drive for five in the 2010 All-Ireland final, Brian Cody’s Cats hit back with a commanding win in this year’s final, a decider for which much of the pre-match hype seemed to be focused on the defending champions.
And Walsh says that fact boosted the Cats who quietly went about their preparation work before claiming their resounding victory over Declan Ryan’s men.
"I think people just said that they’d leave us alone and let us quietly get on with our work, Cats defender Walsh was quoted by the Irish Examiner as telling RTE’s ‘Kilkenny v Tipperary - The Trilogy’ documentary, which will be aired on Wednesday
“It seems, looking back now, it must have been a huge help.”
Walsh, however, insists that this year’s win was not about revenge after the five-in-a-row never happened. Indeed, he says that was never a factor in his mind.
He added: "Looking at the Kerry (football team’s) Golden Years, they lost the five-in-a-row and it was disappointing looking at that and saying, ‘Jaysus, isn’t it a pity they didn’t win one more match just to do the five?’
"When we nearly did it then, it just wasn’t the same. I never thought of it as a five-in-a-row. I think on the day we were just beaten by the better team."