TIPPERARY v KILKENNY:Kilkenny's Michael Fennelly tells GAVIN CUMMISKEYhow the league final defeat to Dublin, and the nature of it, produced a dramatic reaction
EVER WONDER what it’s like to lose an All-Ireland final having won the previous four? One minute Michael Fennelly was an invincible Kilkenny hurler, the next he was cemented to the Croke Park turf as Tipperary men made him mortal just like the rest of us.
“Yeah, that was my first championship game to lose since I joined in 2006. It was a strange feeling, alright. I suppose we’d been on such a great run that you can’t really complain but at the same time you don’t want to lose one.
“It had to end at some stage and unfortunately it happened in an All-Ireland final, probably the worst time to lose.”
They showered, silently climbed aboard the team bus and were driven to their hotel. Without Liam MacCarthy.
“You’re in Citywest that night and there is no Sunday Game in the hotel or anything like that.”
Up the next day and an excruciating homecoming ceremony must be attended.
“Then the homecoming on Monday, it’s just very tough. It just drags out, not a nice feeling whatsoever.”
Come Tuesday, finally, the earth can swallow you whole. “Ah, we got Monday out of the way and then disappeared. Basically, I sat at home and kept the head down.”
But hurling never stops. Ballyhale Shamrocks had lost Henry Shefflin to a cruciate ligament tear. They were also chasing five in a row. Fennelly answered the call.
“Even if you win you are back with the club by Wednesday night. It was tougher going back this time and we were chasing a five in-a-row ourselves, we had to focus our minds to that and we were missing Henry again and it was hard to continue on that run and we ran out of steam again. It was a bad year.”
It seemed like the end of a great era. Sunday will tell us more, but the suspicion exists that the current panel is several shades lighter than the group who obliterated all-comers from 2006 to 2009. Men like Derek Lyng are not simply replaced. Even Eddie Brennan no longer commands a starting role. You can’t roll back the years.
“Our team from even three years ago has changed dramatically,” admits Fennelly. “We might have had a stronger panel three years ago. I was a sub, John Dalton, Michael Rice, a good few of us were subs that day and fighting for our place and I don’t think we were too far off then.
“Derek Lyng has passed on, Michael Kavanagh, Eddie Brennan, they’re all near their mid-30s. We’re looking for fresh players now coming in, like Paddy and Richie Hogan, Colin the brother, Paul Murphy who’s been a regular at corner back. It’s important to keep them coming on to the team, it has definitely changed in the last three years.”
Changed for the better? Surely not.
“Definitely, the ability is there. I don’t know if there is that strength in the panel that was there a couple of years ago. We could have brought on maybe 10 lads back in ’07, ’08. I don’t know if that’s still as strong. I think one to 21 or 23 is strong.
“We had a conveyor belt there when I was a minor. Even a year or two ahead of me there were lads there as well. I think there’s nine or 10 off our under-21 team, then two or three years ahead of me there was seven or eight who came through to the senior team, there was a conveyor belt there.
“Obviously that has to dry off at some stage and it has. We’ve picked up the likes of Richie Doyle, who is only 19 years of age, but there’s only one or two through from 21s.”
Dublin have won the last two under-21 titles in Leinster.
The wolves are circling the Cats. But as Brian Cody reminded everyone last week, Kilkenny are still making finals. They still must be stopped.
Fennelly, along with Richie Power and Shefflin, missed the league final defeat to Dublin but he is refreshingly honest in admitting it was the moment that may yet define their year.
“It was a tough match to watch. Missing any game for Kilkenny is hard but looking at it you were wondering, ‘are we after taking a few steps back or are Dublin after taking a couple of steps forward?. Where are we lying? Are we even in the top four in Ireland or what’s the story?’ They were worrying times, alright, but we’d the likes of Tommy Walsh and Henry to come back into the team.
“Our forwards that day, the ball was coming out way too easy so that was definitely worrying but we knuckled down again, looked at the whole situation.
“Training was upped but we all took a look at ourselves first of all. The attitude and everything just wasn’t good enough that day. I’m not saying the attitude was wrong, everyone wants to play well, but the performance was just off the rails.”
MICHAEL FENNELLY
Position: Midfield
Age: 26
Club: Ballyhale Shamrocks
Height: 6ft 3ins
Weight: 14 stone
Occupation: Ulster Bank
Championship debut: 2006 v Wexford
Honours: 4 senior All-Irelands (2006-09), 6 Leinster SHC (2006-11), 2 NHL (2006, 2009), 1 Walsh Cup (2006), 1 All Star (2010), 2 All-Ireland under-21 (2004, 2006), 1 All-Ireland MHC (2003), 2 All-Ireland club SHC (2007, 2010).
