TJ may be the most decorated hurler to emerge from the Reid household, but Richie could yet tick the one box that he hasn’t before the year is out.
With Kilkenny one of only two counties, along with Kerry, that still allow the county champions to nominate the team captain, the honour fell to the younger Reid sibling this season after Ballyhale Shamrocks wrapped up yet another title last year.
Richie said: “You have that bit of pressure alright but Brian [Cody] asked me at the start of the year, ‘Do you feel any pressure in it?’ and I said, ‘No’.
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“It’s the exact same job as any other player on the team, you have to go out and perform and get your own name on the team.”
The tradition has often resulted in Kilkenny being captained by a player who is far from an automatic starter, with Michael Fennelly being one such example in 2009 as he lifted the Liam MacCarthy Cup after being introduced during the All-Ireland final win over Tipperary, before he went on to become a midfield powerhouse.
He’s one of six Ballyhale men to have lifted the Liam MacCarthy Cup after his uncles Liam (twice) and Ger, Henry Shefflin, James ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick and Joey Holden.
In 2019, Reid was well off the starting team and so didn’t take on the honour. He’s established himself at centre-back in the meantime though so he was happy to accept it this time.
So Ballyhale men who have been captain have supplemented it by lifting Liam MacCarthy though TJ is a glaring exception in that respect.
Having captained the team to the final in 2010 and ‘19, they were well beaten by Tipperary in both.
“He’s after going for it twice,” smiled Richie. “I gave him the captaincy one of the years because I was nominated but I wasn’t starting on the Kilkenny team. I wasn’t giving it to him a third time!”
However, if Reid doesn’t captain Kilkenny to ultimate honours this year, it will mark their longest drought without an All-Ireland since 1983-92.
Clare oppose them in tomorrow evening’s semi-final, a stage they’ve fallen at in each of the last two years - something that had never happened to them before.
“There’s not really any pressure. There is a new group of Kilkenny players there and we want to push on and win.
“We’ve won the last three Leinster titles and lost the last two All-Ireland semi-finals and have fallen short in a way. For this group, we just want to push on one step further.”
Having lost to Wexford and Galway in Leinster before turning the tables on the latter in the provincial final, they have at least been stress-tested to greater degree going into this semi-final.
Reid added: “The two games that we lost were massive. Wexford in Nowlan Park, if you play Wexford, you don’t want to lose and especially a match over in Salthill. You just have to build on those games and we don’t feel the pressure at all, really.
“After losing to Wexford we didn’t know if we were still there – we had to find out what happened across in Salthill. We weren’t happy with our performance and it was about getting it right for the Leinster final.
“We wanted to change things and we did and after the game it was great to see the Hill, all the Kilkenny supporters there.
“I don’t think this group of players saw that before so it was a great lift to the players.”
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