Far from a choker, Brennan proved a giant at Croker

At 21 he still couldn’t break onto the club’s senior starting line-up — in fact he’d play senior championship for Kilkenny before he’d play it with his club

WHEN we think of Eddie Brennan now, we picture him roaring down on goal, smashing it past some helpless keeper and then furiously springing into and thumping the air; another goal and kill completed.

Only DJ Carey in the last 25 years scored more championship goals. Only Ring, Shefflin and Doyle have won as many All-Ireland medals on the pitch. Well before the end of his career, he had come to personify so much of what Cody’s Kilkenny has been about. He had power as well as pace; steel as well as style. He was ruthless, relentless, resilient: in short, a winner.