Colin Fennelly is in a familiar but unfamiliar world.
His club Ballyhale Shamrocks are back on track, in hot pursuit of a first AIB Leinster hurling title in four years – greatly assisted by his 4-4 from play in the weekend's semi-final against Wexford champions Naomh Éanna.
But his county career, so long a mountain-top perspective, has receded to the foothills.
"It's not really a different perspective," he says at the media event for Sunday week's provincial club final against Ballyboden, "but it would be at the back of your mind that we haven't won an All-Ireland [for a while] but there are plenty of players around who haven't won one at all and want to win a first. It's certainly not something you want to get used to, not winning them."
From his personal perspective, the goal-rush for Ballyhale was a reminder of what he can do after a difficult year to date, a point made by club manager and former playing colleague Henry Shefflin last Sunday.
Fennelly spent the early part of the year in Lebanon with the Army, only getting home in time for the start of championship preparations, something he accepts wasn’t ideal.
“It was difficult because I wouldn’t be a naturally talented player like TJ (Reid) and them. I have to work hard at the game. Kilkenny had five league games, a quarter-, semi-final and final behind them when I came in.
“That’s massive – too much hurling to lose coming into the championship and a lot of people were telling me before I went, ‘you’ll be grand and back in loads of time’ but it’s not good enough for myself.
“But you have to make these decisions and they’re life-long. I won’t ever get the chance to go to Lebanon again; I’m after leaving the Army. Was it the right decision? I don’t know.”
For a team in transition, Kilkenny had a decent year, winning the league, reaching the Leinster final and taking champions Galway to a replay before finally exiting after an epic encounter with eventual All-Ireland winners, Limerick.
The year was a struggle for Fennelly as he fought to get back to his best form as the summer unfolded. But he was also struck by how competitive the championship had become with the new round-robin format in the provinces.
“You look at Dublin. We barely beat them [in the Leinster round robin], Wexford barely beat them. If they had had a point or two on us or a point or two on Wexford it would have been a completely different year for them so it’s a narrow margin.”
Unfair criticism
He enjoyed the recent trip to Australia for the Wild Geese Trophy exhibition match against Galway and was able to take advantage of the Sydney weather to take the sun and puck around, along with his Ballyhale team-mates keeping themselves sharp for the club campaign.
He is irritated by what he believes is unfair criticism of the trip on the basis that hurling development in weaker counties could do with investment,
“I don’t know the ins and outs but I’m certain the money is just a small portion of what the GAA get every single year, a small portion that players, say Galway as All-Ireland champions last year and we’ve won All-Irelands, get. 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 out.”
Asked whether he thinks back-to-back All-Irelands have become a thing of the past – last achieved by him and Kilkenny in 2014-15 – he agrees that the current environment has made it far less likely.
“Because of the competitiveness I can’t really see it happening, to be honest. 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 the top team down. That’s what 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.”
After a privileged introduction to the inter-county game, as Kilkenny dominated the early years of the decade, Fennelly is more mindful of achievements that he once took for granted.
“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 we then won four in five years. 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’.”
