Fennelly: I feared I wasn’t going to make the cut
In TV3’s documentary Kilkenny’s Sweetest Success, to be broadcast on Friday week, the Ballyhale Shamrocks man talks about being disillusioned as a substitute.
“Back in 2009, after captaining Kilkenny, I was looking at my own career, wondering ‘have I got a future with Kilkenny?’” he reveals. “There’s only so much you can take on the bench because it’s all about playing.”
Fennelly reckons not much has changed in his approach to the game. However, having laser surgery on a troublesome left eye helped greatly.
“Up to two years ago, I used to wear contact lenses playing hurling. I got laser treatment done two years ago from Dr O’Keeffe up in the Mater Private in Dublin and I found that to be a great help.
“The contact lenses were not doing enough because I’ve a stigmatism in my (left) eye so the laser rectified that.
“I’ve a weak left eye. I found my first touch wasn’t great; I don’t know if Brian (Cody) might question whether it has improved or not, but I’ve found myself it has.
“I find it easier to catch high balls. It’s absolutely super.”
Corner-back Jackie Tyrrell recalls how the team were ashamed of their heavy Division 1 final defeat by Dublin and made a pact to right the wrongs.
“The day against Dublin was embarrassing for us and it was definitely a day we drew a line in the sand and said, ‘right, we’re going back and we have to have a good look at ourselves, the whole panel and the management’. We just went at it with a different attitude. It was the kick in the backside we needed that day in the league final.
“We were meant to be wearing the Kilkenny jersey with pride and honour but we weren’t doing that. We embarrassed and let down the people of Kilkenny.
“There was no drive in the team and no bit of pride and we totally let ourselves down.”
In the programme, Brian Cody admits consulting with players about their successful match-ups, such as Tyrell on Lar Corbett, in the run-up to the All-Ireland final against Tipperary.
“That would be very much a combination of ourselves and the players sitting down and discussing and looking at it,” said Cody.
“We would have talked it out and obviously we decided on a couple of match-ups.
“They’re very experienced and even the ones who are not experienced, their instinct for the game is very, very good.
“So we work together and talk about it together. Everybody knows something about the game so we put all the ideas together and decide what’s best for the team.”
Cody also disputes the idea a manager has a big impact during a game. On the sideline, anybody who thinks you have a huge influence on the game is wrong.
“You can make a call here and a call there and it might work or might not work. But, essentially, the player takes over.”
Cody intimates he isn’t pals with everyone in the camp while he states his selectors Martin Fogarty and Michael Dempsey are just as fundamental as he is in the set-up.
“As regards the relationship with the team and players, it’s there, it’s intact. You know, it’s not a question of everybody being friends with everybody else. I have my job to do, they have their jobs to do and the jobs overlap, obviously. But regardless of things that go on, we all have to work to the best of our abilities.
“We work together, obviously. There’s that sense we’re all in this together, for sure, and there’s a terrific spirit in the whole camp. I work with a management team and they are as important as I am in the situation.”
* Kilkenny’s Sweetest Success will be broadcast on TV3 at 2.30pm on Friday December 30.
