Fennelly: 2019 will be tougher for Limerick

Colin Fennelly, twice a back-to-back All-Ireland hurling winner with Kilkenny, has warned Limerick that they’ll face a mighty struggle to hold onto their title in 2019.

The Cats attacker even claimed he couldn’t see any county achieving back-to-back wins in the coming seasons, with five counties having won the All-Ireland in the last six years.

Asked if that amounted to a claim that Limerick won’t retain the MacCarthy Cup, Fennelly said they are capable of doing so, but he noted that standards, generally, have never been as high.

“They could easily do it next year — along with seven other teams, so there’s no team ruled out,” said Fennelly of Limerick’s chances in 2019.

“They’ll find it tough, as any other team will. They might just find it tougher, because other teams will be looking to bring them down, because they’re at the top and that’s just natural. The same happened to Galway.”

Fennelly admitted he took his back-to-back wins in 2011/2012 and 2014/2015 for granted and his gut feeling now is it won’t happen again soon.

“Because of the competitiveness, I can’t see it happening, to be honest,” said the Ballyhale Shamrocks man who’ll be in AIB Leinster club final action on Sunday week.

“Maybe with Galway we thought they could do it, but Limerick were absolutely amazing in the final and they’re going to find it hard to come back, because others are going to want to take down the top team.

"That’s what’s going to happen all year and it will be a new task for them when teams are gunning for them every day in the league.

“I can’t see it happening and that’s probably good from the competitiveness point of view and you don’t know who’s going to win.

"It’s just been an amazing championship and I’m sure everyone is looking forward to next year, let alone the players.”

Fennelly, 29, said seeing how difficult it is to win an All-Ireland makes him value his own medals even more.

“You did take it for granted, because I came in and I was winning with the club at the time and Kilkenny had just done four-in-a-row and then we won four in five years,” he said.

“It was massive and you kept going. There was no time to look back. Now, we haven’t won one for three years and you’re looking back and saying: ‘I’d love if we could win just one more.’”

Fennelly travelled with Kilkenny to Sydney recently for the Wild Geese Trophy tie against Galway, which they lost narrowly.

There was criticism of the contest from figures, such as Carlow player Paul Coady, who questioned why the GAA was trying to “grow the game across the world” when they should “grow it in Ireland first”, but a frustrated Fennelly hit back.

“It was definitely worthwhile,” he said. “I don’t know the ins and outs, but I’m certain the money involved is just a small portion of what the GAA gets every single year, a small portion that us as players — say Galway as All-Ireland champions and we’ve won All-Irelands ourselves — we don’t get that much out of it and for people to complain and want to take that from us.

"You know, you don’t even bother with them in your lives: People who complain and give it.”

Meanwhile, Leinster Council chairman Jim Bolger has confirmed that the Dublin footballers will begin their bid for five-in-a-row in either Wexford Park or Portlaoise next summer.

Dublin will play Wexford or Louth in the Leinster quarter-finals and, with Louth unable to host the game at their tiny Drogheda base, the game will go to Laois in the event that they qualify.