After winning a staggering 10 county medals, eight Leinsters and five All-Irelands with Ballyhale Shamrocks, Colin Fennelly was barely running on fumes earlier this year.
For all that success, it didn’t provide any insulation following the agonising defeat to Ballygunner in February’s All-Ireland club final as a last gasp goal denied them a historic three-in-a-row.
Eight months later, however, he now has county medal number 11, along with TJ Reid, as the club moved level at the top of the Kilkenny roll of honour with Tullaroan while becoming the first club to complete the five-in-a-row after a gutsy seven-point win over James Stephens on Sunday.
Remarkably, in a county as competitive as Kilkenny, all 20 of Ballyhale’s titles have come since 1978, just six years after the club’s foundation, equating to a rough average of one every two years.
But the five-in-a-row seemed a hell of a long way off in the immediate aftermath of Harry Ruddle’s dramatic winner for Ballygunner at Croke Park.
“It did, it certainly did,” Fennelly admitted. “My hunger was gone, I was completely deflated.”
Going away to San Francisco, where he hurled for the Na Fianna club for the summer, recharged his batteries, however.
“The biggest thing for me was getting away from the hurling. Well, not really away from the hurling because I hurled in America, but to get away from that whole thing of being with the club and going through the league again and the Byrne Cup and all that craic.
“We were away in America enjoying ourselves and there was a separation from the whole thing, and I came back incredibly hungry. I couldn’t wait to come back, there was no way I was going away and not coming back and going for five-in-a-row.
“Joey Holden is the same - Joey wasn’t supposed to come back and I think it just ate him up inside, and he said there’s no way he was leaving the five-in-a-row go, and he has been vital for us there at full-back, solid as a rock every single game and we needed everyone and everyone showed up and it was absolutely amazing.”
Holden’s father, Patrick, passed away recently. He was a founder member of the club in 1972, was a player during their first run of success in the ‘70s and ‘80s and later served as chairman, as did former Fianna Fail TD Bobby Aylward, who also died earlier this year.
Paul Shefflin, brother of Henry and a defensive lynchpin during the club’s second run coming from 2006, died suddenly in March and they and others were remembered in the aftermath of Sunday’s victory.
“There were serious emotions there near the end of the match, between where we were I suppose and being a man down, the rain and then just the few tragedies during the year,” Fennelly explained.
“You heard Ronan [Corcoran, team captain] say it up there and it’s been said numerous times, you get text messages about it from the lads and you got them Saturday night and talk to people about it; it was just really emotional there.
“To do the five-in-a-row for the club in the 50th year was just really amazing. Patrick Holden passed away there only two weeks ago and it’s the first one he’s ever missed, same with Bobby Aylward.
“Paul Shefflin had done it all, and the thoughts of any of them not being here, it’s unbelievable. But to do it for them means everything to us.”
Next for Ballyhale is a Leinster quarter-final against Westmeath’s Castletown Geoghegan on the weekend of November 12/13 and that and a potential All-Ireland campaign should be enough to quell Fennelly’s wanderlust for now.
“I was supposed to go away but you couldn’t talk about not going away or gign away because you are in the middle of the Championship. At this stage I’ll just talk to the management team but you would be incredibly hungry.
“It’s a chance to go for another Leinster final, you are there and you don’t want to let it go. As I said, the hunger is there and it was a massive thing being over in America and just getting that separation and being away. I really enjoyed it over there and to come back to lads fit and ready; the hunger they have is amazing.”
Now 33, Fennelly’s club form continues to hold up well after retiring from Kilkenny duty last year and former county teammate Jackie Tyrrell suggested that new Cats boss Derek Lyng should try and coax him back.
“Oh don’t mind Jackie,” Fennelly laughed of his old James Stephens adversary. “He was playing mind games beforehand so he was!”
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