Kilkenny SHC Preview- Tommy Walsh happy with Tullaroan's progress

Tullaroan will head into the last eight of the county senior hurling championship this weekend with a familiar foe lying in wait as they get ready to face Bennettsbridge.

The ’Bridge dumped the 20-time county champions out at the first stage in 2023 but on the back of a league final appearance, the Sash appear to be in a decent spot.

“We had a great league and all the games were so competitive as the standard in Kilkenny is so high,” said Tullaroan defender Tommy Walsh.

“We’ve played well in the second half of a lot of the games and it’s great to know that when we do go behind we can come back and fight.”

Last year’s league and championship was in sharp contrast to the year before when Tullaroan won the league title and pushed a Shamrocks team that went on to win a fifth successive county all the way to the wire in the county semi-final.

That’s what made last year’s early exit stand out so much and Walsh is hoping they’ve learned a few lessons ahead of a rematch with Bennettsbridge.

“We won the league two years ago on the back of a great campaign and came into the championship in flying form and lost out to Ballyhale by four points in the semi-final,” he said.

“There was nothing between us really and we thought we’d do the same last year but we can’t put our finger on what went wrong really.

“That’s the competitiveness of Kilkenny club hurling as sometimes you can be going great and then other times you don’t really get going as some of the other teams are so strong.

“After such a bad year, we are driving things on this time around to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

Tommy is one of two Tommy Walshes involved with Tullaroan and while the two players have played together previously, that’s all now in the past with the older Walsh now finished up on the field and now in a role as selector with the team.

The Kilkenny legend is working well under manager Ken Coogan as he looks to help the club try and bridge a gap to their last senior county title 30 years ago.

For the younger Tommy, his influence is massive and he’s a huge positive in the dressing room.

“He’s unreal to be fair, he’s the same as you’d see when a player or as a pundit.

“His love for the game of hurling is incredible and you’ll always listen to him.

“He’s so hands on as well in the training and you can tell he’d nearly want to be still playing.

“Anytime he speaks you really listen and his intelligence, I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s just great to have him involved as a coach this year.”

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