Former Cork dual star makes startling admission and says he is still bitter

Irish Daily Mirror

16-05-2025

Former Cork dual star Aidan Walsh has revealed he has only been to one of the hurlers' games since he was released from the panel after the 2020 campaign.
Walsh, an All-Ireland winner with the Cork footballers in 2010, was 30 when Kieran Kingston rang him to tell him he was cut from the hurling set-up.
The Kanturk star was shocked by the news and admits that, five years on, he remains bitter about the manner of his departure and wishes that he had called Kingston back later to ask if there was a route back for him.
"It was very tough to deal with," Walsh told the BBC's GAA Social podcast. "It was the first time a manager told me he didn't want me. It was the first time I got that kind of call.
"It was a big shock and I was just disappointed then. You just reflect a lot on what I could have done better, what should I have done, if I never went to the hurling could I still be playing football (for Cork) after leaving in '14. I should have rang him back just to get clarification - just to get that closure really or if the door was half open, what do I need to do.
"I loved it, loved the environment, loved being part of that culture. In Cork, hurling is just so big and you go through all the sacrifices to play on the big stage.
"If that door is closed then that's it, no matter how hard you go with the club you'll never play in front of 20, 30 or 40 thousand people."
Walsh put all his efforts into Kanturk and helped his club to return to the senior county championship the same year that he was dropped by Cork.
The only match involving the intercounty hurlers that he has attended since his departure was the 2021 All-Ireland final defeat to Limerick. "I have great friends in the team and I'd always text them before games and after games, but I've only gone to one game since," he said.
"I just still feel that bit bitter towards it. I'd still go to all the football games, my brother plays and my cousin, but I still have that bit of bitterness in me for some reason. I didn't go to the All-Ireland final last year, I was down west. I watched it alright but I watched it on my own."When you're young and feel fit and I was still playing good hurling for the club, I was still contributing, and especially when you have players that you played with who are still playing, it just feels a bit bitter towards it. And I hope to God they win the All-Ireland this year, I really wanted them to win last year and every year I wanted them to win."But even the game I went to, the All-Ireland final against Limerick the year after, people were coming up to me going, 'Jesus, what happened? Why did you get dropped?' I didn't want to listen to it. That's nearly the worst part of going to Cork games."Even at the football a few people came up the last day saying 'did you bring the gear'. I know you'd laugh at those kinds of comments but they're annoying because it's only a small period of your life that you'd get to play for your county and it's a privilege to play. And it's over, it's gone, you can't bring it back."
Walsh regrets not accepting the GPA's offer for help and guidance after he was released. "Good people around you is the most important thing," he said. "When it happened I was telling myself I'll be grand and will get through it, and the GPA did reach out to say if I needed a bit of help to transition from intercounty into normality.
"Everything revolved around it for me, so for that to be gone...on reflection I should have reached out to the GPA and got that bit of guidance and help they were offering."