Phelan as keen as ever to win on the big stage

The future was his.

In 2004, Conor Phelan was full-forward on a Kilkenny U21 title-winning team that contained Tennyson, Fennelly, Walsh, Fitzpatrick and Power. A year earlier, he won it all at the same grade from wing-forward, with Tyrell, Delaney, Rice and Fogarty. Before even that, he was the first link in the chain, his pass feeding Shefflin, who found Comerford for the decisive goal in the senior decider against Cork. Indeed by the end of 2003, his father joked that if he never won another thing, he’d enough to keep him going, since there was a Freshers win and Fitzgibbon Cup with Waterford IT that season too, to go along with a Leinster and National League medal.

Until now though, that stash has had to keep him going. Turns out that future wasn’t his after all.