IT’S 6 SEPTEMBER and Michael Fennelly is sitting in Offaly’s Faithful Fields training centre in his first briefing with the media.
The new Offaly manager cuts a relaxed figure as he sets out his plan for the coming season – which will be his first as an inter-county boss.
The press conference is nearing a close when Fennelly is asked if he plans to play on with his club Ballyhale Shamrocks.
He grimaces.
“At the minute I’m rehabbing my knee.”
Six months earlier, he won his fourth All-Ireland club medal having battled through a knee injury he picked up weeks earlier in the semi-final win over Ballygunner.
Turns out he sustained a microfracture to his knee which required keyhole surgery. Fennelly took most the summer off and returned to some light running and gym work in the middle of August.
“I’m still a good bit off but I’m just going to keep on getting back in terms of full health and when it comes around to championship and we’re still in it and I’m up to scratch well then we’ll weigh it up at that stage,” he explained.
“I’m hoping to make it back but I don’t want to be massively disappointed then if I put everything into it and don’t come back.
“I’m going to keep on tipping away and hopefully it all falls in together and falls into place in the coming weeks. We lost our last game last week so we’re in a semi-final of relegation now.”
At that stage, Ballyhale were staring down the barrel of a preliminary relegation semi-final after finishing in the bottom two of their six-team group in the league, which is linked to the championship.
Fast forward seven weeks and Ballyhale are preparing for another county final. The 34-year-old was a late addition to last weekend’s semi-final team. Wearing number 25, he played 58 minutes at centre-back before his withdrawal.
Fennelly featured for the second-half against Clare in the quarter-final, meaning he has 88 minutes of championship hurling put down this season.
They were six down at one stage in the quarter-final win over Clara and conceded a goal just 18 seconds into the last four win over O’Loughlin Gaels, but emerged as winners on both occasions. Fennelly proved a key figure in both wins.
Like most elite club teams will know, timing is everything when it comes to enjoying extended runs in the winter. Under the stewardship of Henry Shefflin – still only in his second season in charge – Ballyhale survived a scare or two to reach successive county finals for the first time since 2012.
They got a few bodies back from a summer sojourn in the States, some injuries cleared up, while the likes of TJ Reid, Adrian Mullen and Colin Fennelly got back in the swing of things following the disappointment of the All-Ireland final defeat to Tipperary.
Today’s final against James Stephens sees both sides renew an age-old rivalry that dates back before most of these players were even born. The clubs have met in six finals – the first of them in 1982 – with Ballyhale leading the series by 4-2.
There will be a plethora of big names involved, including some long-serving stars of Kilkenny hurling. Shefflin is on the line for Ballyhale, while Seamus ‘Cheddar’ Plunkett is part of The Village’s backroom team.
Jackie Tyrrell and Eoin Larkin are part of the James Stephens defence, with the latter employed sometimes at centre-back and other times as a sweeper.
Brian Cody will be in the stands to watch his native club, who have county players Conor Browne, Niall Brassil and Luke Scanlon in their side, in addition to former Cat Matthew Ruth.
Eoin Cody and Evan Shefflin are other names on the Ballyhale panel who were involved under Cody this season.
Indeed, for Henry Shefflin to complete back-to-back titles after two seasons in charge of his native club would be quite the achievement. The 10-time All-Ireland winner unexpectedly brought Shamrocks to provincial and national success in his debut campaign as bainisteoir.
He’s already being talked up as a potential successor to Cody on the Kilkenny hot-seat, alongside former team-mates DJ Carey and Eddie Brennan.
As well as on-field matters, Shefflin has been forced to navigate some very difficult circumstances away from the pitch too.
Ballyhale Shamrocks have been struck with a fair deal of tragedy in recent times. Twice in the last 18 months, the players have buried a team-mate.
Squad member Eoin Doyle lost his life in a motorbike accident in April 2018. Three weeks ago, another senior panellist Eugene Aylward was killed in a car crash.
Ballyhale have done their best to honour both with their performances on the pitch.
Doyle’s jersey proudly hung in the Ballyhale dressing room right the way through their All-Ireland winning campaign, ensuring his memory was never far from the players’ minds.
Fennelly dedicated the victory to Doyle in his acceptance speech, declaring: “Back in February 2018, we started this journey with this team.
“We’re finishing now on St Patrick’s Day but we’ve one less player and that’s Eoin Doyle. We brought Eoin’s memory with us the whole year along, with a jersey in the dressing room, and this cup is in dedication to him and what we’ve done.”
Is iad @BallyhaleGAA seampíní iomána na hÉireann!@GAA__JOE @KilkennyCLG @AIB_GAA #TheToughest pic.twitter.com/uaC321mKx4
— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) March 17, 2019
An emotional Shefflin echoed that sentiment in his post-match interview: “There’s been some amazing days, there’s been some very sad days – burying Eoin Doyle, the passing of Eoin Doyle, one of our panel members. It’s like life, sport is full of ups and downs.
“That’s real life. Today is about sport, about enjoyment, about expressing ourselves. That’s what I said to the lads, ‘Whatever you do, enjoy it’.
“We just asked them to perform as best they can and I think they did that. I think Eoin Doyle was watching down over us.”
Aylward was due to be part of the Ballyhale panel before they played Clara in the last eight earlier this month, but he died the night before and the game was duly postponed.
In a statement, the club described him as “a very popular young man and a friend to everyone who was lucky enough to have known him.”
As Dublin defender Jack McCaffrey brilliantly put it last month in-between visits to sick children in hospital with the Sam Maguire: “Some people say it puts things in perspective; football doesn’t really matter. No, it absolutely highlights how much sport matters.”
Ballyhale Shamrocks are well aware that some things in life supersede sport, yet the depth of its power cannot be underestimated.
For a couple of hours today, hurling will unite and give a small distraction for the grieving team-mates, friends and families of Eugene Aylward and Eoin Doyle.
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
