Aidan Walsh and Lorcán McLoughlin have already played in 34 county finals between them

GAA appearance data remains a work in progress even at inter-county level, so huge credit must go to clubs that have dug into the archives to compile such records and recognise the achievements of their local heroes.

We noticed this week that two Kanturk stalwarts will reach their 150th championship appearances for their club when they take the field at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday evening.

Aidan Walsh and Lorcán McLoughlin are the men fulfilling the aspirations of so many county players who step away from the national stage: to give long and fruitful service to the jersey in which they learned the game.

McLoughlin departed the Cork camp in 2018, while Walsh’s last game in the blood and bandage was the qualifier defeat to Tipperary in November 2020. Given undivided attention, the 34-year-olds’ club careers have continued to flourish.

Their journey through the adult grades began in May 2006 with the first round of the Intermediate Hurling Championship. Although Kanturk didn’t progress very far that year, they did begin with a surprise 1-12 to 0-13 win over Éire Óg when both the 'electric' McLoughlin and the 'nimble' Walsh got on the scoresheet.

It was a 'fairytale day' for McLoughlin, in particular. Earlier in the afternoon, the Coláiste Treasa pupil starred for the Cork vocational schools team beating Galway in an All-Ireland semi-final. 

There was no hint of fatigue later on as he switched out from corner-forward to play around midfield for the second half in a man-of-the-match debut.

That Tuesday evening, Kanturk fielded five players under the age of 18. They were investing in the potential of their future stars to carry them up the ranks. It has certainly paid off over the years.

MOPPED UP

A club that hadn’t won an adult county title since 1969 has mopped up six since 2011. And that’s not including their Munster and All-Ireland Intermediate hurling successes from the invincible 2017/18 campaign when they won 16 consecutive championship games across both codes.

“Once you got a taste for success at all, fellas were willing to stay at it,” McLoughlin said last month in advance of Kanturk’s Premier SHC quarter-final against Blackrock. “But it has been a long road. “Could you even envisage something like this back then? No way. You couldn't make sense of it because it just seemed so far away.” 

They have turned it into reality.

If Kanturk navigate past Carrigaline in Saturday’s SAFC semi-final, it would make for a 19th county final appearance for Aidan Walsh. He has played in nine for Kanturk, eight with Duhallow, and one in CIT colours. McLoughlin isn’t far behind as he chases his 17th.

When Walsh’s football debut arrived in the 2007 Duhallow Junior A opener against Ballydesmond, he was the outstanding player, scoring 1-3 as he partnered his uncle Jerome in midfield. 

Nowadays, one of Jerome’s sons, Paul, plays that role. Between them, the seven Walsh cousins have clocked in for 523 championship appearances. And counting.

Of course, we can’t write this article without acknowledging the Kanturk servant who has already surpassed the 150 mark. John McLoughlin, Lorcán’s brother, has 161 appearances to his name across 20 seasons. That’s 310 between the two siblings.

DUAL DIAMONDS

The crossover between their Premier Senior hurling and Senior A football teams is almost total. Equally, Lorcán McLoughlin and Aidan Walsh’s 150-appearance milestones are near-evenly divided between both codes.

McLoughlin has played in 75 hurling championship games, scoring 9-327, and will play his 75th football game this weekend, seeking to add to his 7-69 total.

Walsh has scored 9-151 in 76 hurling games, including an eye-catching 17 sideline cuts, and 6-75 in 73 football games.

Kanturk’s icons are also lucky to have their records documented and celebrated. The club’s team announcements on X (formerly Twitter) feature each player’s appearance stats beside their names.

The research was undertaken by Donal Desmond, who is a familiar face at Kanturk and Cork matches as the right-hand man to club and county PRO Francis Kenneally.

Combing through the newspaper archives at Kanturk and Cork City Libraries, he has collated a treasure trove of local GAA history across 280 games from 1980 to the present day.

It says something of Kanturk’s progress, the improved training-to-games ratio, and Walsh and McLoughlin’s achievements, that they have played in more than half of those games.