THE WINTER OF 2011 is set to be a good one in Kilkenny after their latest All-Ireland title victory, according to Tommy Walsh.

The Cats defender was one of his county’s key performers in Sunday’s 2-17 to 1-16 win over Tipperary in the All-Ireland Hurling at Croke Park – keeping impressive shackles on Tipp’s Patrick Maher – and Walsh revealed that last year’s loss at the same stage was all the motivation Brian Cody’s men needed.

“It stands as the sweetest (win) because we lost last year,” he told reporters afterwards. “If you go back and ask anyone before today what is their best victory, it would have been Cork (in 2006) because we got beaten the two previous years.

“After last year and the losing the five-in-a-row, it was heartbreaking all last winter and it probably showed out there how much it affected us.”

Cody, the mastermind behind Kilkenny’s dominance of hurling in recent years, described the victory as “massively sweet”.

Speaking to RTÉ, he added: “Tipperary were great champions, they set very high standards and they were hot favourites to win. In those situations it becomes sweet to win because we had to play at a serious level to win it from minute one.

“If we had said before the game that we’ll just go and do the best, we wouldn’t be standing here with the McCarthy Cup. We had to look at the whole thing, look at Tipperary and make a plan to beat them. They had earned that kind of respect; we gave them that respect and we planned accordingly. It worked out very well.”

Tipperary manager Declan Ryan paid immediate tribute to the new champions after the contest, admitting that Kilkenny showed “savage hunger” and “all the hallmarks that have made them a great team”.

“We struggled to get out of the blocks for whatever reason,” he concluded to RTÉ. “Kilkenny probably looked a bit that bit hungrier and that bit fresher than us. We were just hanging on to their coattails.”

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