In a game of chances, you can count on Fast Eddie

HE is known simply as Fast Eddie. And on Saturday, Eddie Brennan lived up that reputation in Croke Park as his blistering pace and superb finishing skills fired Kilkenny past Galway and into an All-Ireland SHC semi-final against Wexford on Sunday.

Brennan, a Portlaoise-based Garda, has played through the good times and the bad (as he did for a good part of this game).

Such experience explain why his post match reaction was so matter-of-fact. This was a day when the chances came and he was able to avail of them.

But, it’s not always like that.

He explained: “We just got breaks and we made them count. Hurling is like that and that’s sport for you. Sometimes you can hit the post or the breaks don’t come. Today, luckily we made them count.”

For his first goal, so crucial in breaking Galway’s spirit, he heaped praise on Eoin Larkin.

“It was just the way the play developed. The ball came in and it went back out and I suppose I just ghosted in. Eoin Larkin — I think not too many would have seen it — spotted that I was in there on my own.”

He continued: “We were confident in our own game. We knew that chances ‘come’ and sometimes you get one chance in a game and it has to count. Thankfully today we made them count. I think that was the difference. Other than that it was just the puck of a ball, it was tit for tat all the way.”

Accepting that he hadn’t been involved in the game very much in the first half, he responded: “this is the nature of the game. Sometimes it’s like that. In the first half, it was 110 miles an hour. I think everyone was out on their feet and there was a lot of heat out there too.

“We expected nothing else, it was an All-Ireland quarter-final and we know what Galway are like over the years — savage hurlers, savage fitness levels.”

He feels the intensity of this game will be hugely beneficial for next week’s return to Croke Park and a last four meeting with Wexford, the side they defeated in the Leinster decider.

Explained Brennan: “All the game practice you can get is the only way you can improve. This is the time of the year when the real hurling is done. That was a huge obstacle and we got over it.”

It may be hard to convince the sceptics, bearing in mind what happened the last time the teams met, but he insists that Sunday’s game will be much closer. “We just have to focus on that again. We know what Wexford are like, a traditional side. The pundits and the critics slated Wexford. Look at them Saturday. They turned around and proved everyone wrong. I guarantee they’ll aim to do the same to us the next day.”