21st century hurling’s finest midfielder?

Michael Fennelly’s retirement last week, both inevitable and a bit unexpected, pushes further into shadow one of hurling’s most remarkable eras.

The inevitability? Fennelly’s struggle with back problems all through this decade. The Kilkenny midfielder had hardly come to prominence, making 2010’s Hurler of the Year shortlist, before these difficulties threatened to guillotine his potential.

This issue required imaginative handling by management. Michael Fennelly more or less became the Paul McGrath of hurling, with collective training minimised so as to maximise championship impact. Hearing this retirement news, Eddie Brennan tweeted: “trained three times in summer 2011 & won HOTY nobody else”.