IN 2015 SEAMUS Kennedy was a Tipperary senior footballer, bedded in at right half-back for the summer on a team who saw their season crash to a halt against Tyrone in mid-July.
Twelve months on he is wearing the number five jersey again for a Tipperary senior side but his upcoming engagement is with the hurlers against Galway rather than the footballers against Mayo.
Michael Quinlivan and Kennedy are clubmates. Last November their combination play yielded the goal that saw Clonmel Commercials stun Nemo Rangers on the Munster club football stage.
Before that they were part of the Tipperary minor team that conquered the 2011 All-Ireland football arena.
Quinlivan plans to be in Croke Park supporting the Tipperary hurlers on Sunday and there is no trace of bitterness over Kennedy’s decision to switch allegiances.
“Seamus is one of my best friends. The two of us grew up together. He actually rang me when Michael Ryan gave him a call and the two of us went and talked about it.
“What he said was he didn’t want to be 35 looking back and saying, ‘what if…’. The thing people don’t realise is because we are so close as a Tipperary football group, he was walking away from a lot of the lads he had grown up with.
“It was a very, very tough decision for himself and Stevie (O’Brien) or any of the rest of them that decided to step away. We’re not a bitter group at all.
“We wish them all the best straight out, and we keep doing that,. At the end of the day he’s still playing for Tipperary and that’s the main thing.”
Kennedy has emerged from the pack to nail a starting berth for the Tipp senior hurlers. In the early part of the year, his time was consumed by Clonmel Commercials All-Ireland club involvement and a winning Fitzgibbon Cup campaign with Mary Immaculate College.
“He was with us (Clonmel) until the middle of February and then obviously they had a run and won the Fitzgibbon with Mary I. and I know that Michael Ryan had just told him to be patient and get himself right.
“And it shows the faith that they have in his ability, that he was able to break through not having played a game of league hurling and he’s shown how good he was over the last three games.
“When he finishes up playing for Tipperary, he’ll be back playing for Commercials and I suppose that will be a benefit for me. I suppose I’m one of the only ones that still gets to play with him at football.”
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