Shane Walsh was still bandaged up, he was after some late night treatment but there he was, shoulder-high in the Kilmacud Crokes club-house, the Dublin senior ...
And later on that night, it was party-time as he was hoisted high in the Kilmacud Crokes club-house, belting out Sweet Caroline with some adoring Kilmacud supporters. "I was slagging the lads when I joined up. I just couldn't wait to get out there," he added. It did look like the dream was over, 25 minutes into Sunday's final, when a stray Glenn O'Reilly boot saw Walsh subbed in the first half. Paul Mannion's latest unfortunate injury rocked them in the quarter finals, and it has put a stop, so far, to what could be the deadliest duo club football will ever see, but Walsh has stepped up for them. Adding to that, Kilmacud had only just lost the All-Ireland club final to Kilcoo and, with Walsh to boot, the club of no fewer than 5000 members would be seen as unstoppable in 2022.
And so the Dublin senior county championship basically boiled down to Kilkerrin- Clonberne's most famous football export: Shane Walsh.
In the main event, the result means Crokes win back-to-back titles and move to third in the roll of honour. Just get in and get a few sweets into me and get back out for the second half and try and contribute. All the positive development work going hand in hand with the numbers explains why both are also in the hurling final next weekend. But eventually, it started to go right for me at the right time.' 'I'm not blessed with having played in many of them, so I wasn't going to let a few stitches keep me out of the second half. The man of the moment was thrilled with the result after all the headlines surrounding his move to Dublin where he is living and studying.