Fennelly enjoying Cats’ new challenge

We may or may not be witnessing the last gasps of hurling’s greatest side but, regardless of the outcome of Sunday’s clash with Cork, no county has ever reached such heights for such a prolonged period of time as current All-Ireland champions, Kilkenny.

Their roll of honour speaks for itself. So too does the fact that Kilkenny have stared down a Cork side that favoured a revolutionary short game, a Waterford team that crackled with electric energy and a Tipperary outfit that, for a time, matched them with pace, intensity and physicality.

You doubt that you will ever see their like again but then you sit down and talk to Michael Fennelly about his new life as a student of sports performance in the University of Limerick and it makes you wonder if, in fact, we are only at the foothills of what can be accomplished in the ancient game.