Sure ambassador and Kilkenny hurler Michael Fennelly.
By John Harrington
Winning All-Irelands is a ruthless business, which is why Kilkenny’s Michael Fennelly knows there’s no room for sentiment ahead of Sunday’s clash with Tipperary.
The ruptured Achilles that has ruled him out of the game is a devastating personal blow, but he’s not the sort to court sympathy and knows there’s little point doing so.
One of the reasons Kilkenny have been so successful in recent years is because they prize the collective far more than the individual. Losing Fennelly is a blow, but all it really means is that someone will come in and do his job and the team will keep marching forward.
“Once that game starts, I’ll be forgotten about and the sympathy will be forgotten about because win or lose it doesn’t matter,” admits Fennelly.
“In a year or six months’ time, people aren’t going to talk about my injury; they’ll talk about who won that All-Ireland and who was playing.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re injured or not. If you are injured you’re going to be forgotten about and that’s just the way it is again, unfortunately.”
Michael Fennelly
Kilkenny have a ready-made replacement for Fennelly in the shape of Lester Ryan, but there’s no doubt the loss of the Ballyhale man is a blow for Kilkenny.
He had played himself into superb form this year and on his day remains the most powerful and influential midfielder in the country.
His injury also robs us of what would have been a serious head to head between him and Tipperary’s up and coming young midfielder Michael Breen. Tipp have sometimes struggled to cope with Fennelly’s power when the teams have clashed in recent years, but they had high hopes that in the physically abrasive Breen they had a man who could go toe to toe with the Kilkenny man.
“Yeah, I heard that possible match-up a couple of months back and it is a pity,” says Fennelly. “I wouldn’t like facing him to be honest, he’s a strong young fella, he’s fast as well. Who knows, I could have been picking up someone like Brendan Maher.
“It would have been a nice match-up (Breen), a nice challenge again, a nice test, something I’d look forward to. He’d have the edge on me alright but there’s nothing I can do about it now unfortunately.”
Breen is one of a number of emerging Tipperary players along with Ronan Maher, John McGrath, Seamus Kennedy, and Dan McCormack who have impressed this year.
There’s a new-look to their team in terms of both personnel and tactics since Michael Ryan became manager, and Fennelly believes they’re stronger now than at any time in the recent past.
“I think over the last two, three or four years, this is their strongest team,” he says. “They have it structured well, they have the likes of Brendan Maher back into midfield now where he was in 2010 — I think that’s his best position.
“They have the addition of Ronan Maher at centre-back, which they probably lacked the last few years with players interchanging. Paudie Maher’s best position is half-back and he’s there now, young (John) McGrath is corner-forward and banging in goals this year. And they’re not panicking and they’ve subs to come on as well.
“Against Galway they were kind of caught in a few situations. Galway could have easily won that game but Tipperary never panicked; they kept hurling, kept tipping away and got the scores at the end.”
Michael Breen
Fennelly won’t be able to tog out on Sunday, but he still hopes to play some sort of part on the day, even if that’s just saying a few words at the right time in the dressing-room.
"Some people say a couple of words here and there, it could be one word, it could be a speech, there’s a mountain of other players that I know of that have spoken in dressing rooms over the last number of years at certain stages, the likes of Noel Hickey and so on. They said stuff that have really got the team going and you want to knock down walls (afterwards).
“I think some people are thinking that — will I say a speech or something like. If I have a word or two to say, I’ll say it but there’s no point saying something for the sake of it. It’s all about what happens on the field. Even from the last day, we said ‘let’s leave it on the field, there’s no point talking about these things. Do what you have to do on the field’. So I’ll be coming from that angle if anything.”
