A central figure in Brian Cody's all-conquering Kilkenny, Tommy Walsh explained on Monday's OTB AM what set the team's array of great players in a slightly different light to the few genuine geniuses who left their mark. 

On a morning where Kilkenny's sporting Rushmore was decided by journalist Enda McEvoy and former Irish rugby international Gary Halpin, Tommy Walsh joined OTB AM to discuss a number of the hurling candidates who would be up for consideration.

Although it didn't seem likely then that the final selection would find such little room for what we consider Kilkenny's most popular pastime, Walsh, a nine-time All-Ireland winner with the Cats, examined the particular characteristics one requires if they are to be considered a genius hurler.

"I was a good player on a great team," he remarked with an undeniable modesty, "but there were geniuses there. You have good players, great players but then you have these geniuses."

Across the 12-year period Tommy Walsh spent within the Kilkenny set-up, a few expected names come to the fore in this category: DJ Carey and Henry Shefflin were two, while Angela Downey generated a similar sense of excitement with the great Kilkenny camogie teams of years gone by.

As one member of a defensive unit that would provide the foundation for so many All-Ireland successes, however, Walsh honed in on a teammate of his whose reputation spread the length and breadth of the country.

"Jackie Tyrrell, Mick Kavanagh, Noel Hickey, Brian Hogan," he listed indefinitely, "they were all great players, but then we played with one genius - JJ Delaney."

Kilkenny players, left to right, David Herity, Michael Fennelly, JJ Delaney, and Tommy Walsh. Picture credit: Sportsfile

Two vital components of Kilkenny's defensive system for so many years, Walsh came to intimately understand how Delaney performed on a level ever so slightly apart from those around him.

"Ask any of the Kilkenny lads of our era, or even guys that marked him like Big Dan [Shanahan] or Ben O'Connor," he stressed of the regard in which Delaney is held, "I'd say JJ would be top of their list for toughest opponent.

"Brian Cody said it a couple of years ago I think that JJ is the greatest defender he's ever seen. He could do it on the biggest stages and we all remember his hook he got on Seamus Callanan in the 2014 All-Ireland - it was incredible.

"Like, I was saying how you would go to watch a Gowran club match just to see DJ. Well, we used to go to Johnstown matches to see this defender JJ Delaney playing. He was just an incredible man. As a defender, he was definitely the best and I wouldn't even have to think about that."

On the wider issue then of what make a genius hurler, Tommy Walsh tried to break it down into finer details.

"You know that old saying," he began, "about talent and hard work and how work will beat talent if talent doesn't work, well the way I put genius is that they have both of those things. They have all the simple skills of their chosen sport, and then they have the hard work to go with it.

"When we talk about Henry, DJ, JJ and these guys, I could practice a skill 100 times and maybe I'll start getting it. These lads could practice it 3 or 4 times and they'd just have it. So, the geniuses had that and then they'd work like savages anyway.

"The other thing about a genius is that they're able to do it on the biggest stage of all because part of being a genius is holding your nerve."

You can watch back Tommy Walsh's interview in full here, and catch up with the final selections for Kilkenny's Mt Rushmore here. 

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