CONAL RECALL
Ballyboden ace has more than a few memories of King Henry’s greatness
Ballyboden St Enda’s v Ballyhale Shamrocks
Netwatch Cullen Park, 2pm
NOBODY ever doubted Henry Shefflin’s brilliance as a hurler, but some realised it earlier than others.
For Conal Keaney, the proof of the pudding came late in the 2002 Interprovincial hurling final.
The Dubliner was playing up front for Leinster alongside the Kilkenny legend that day.
Keaney, a talented free-taker, had already scored 1-1 but when a late free was awarded, with the scores tied, he looked to Shefflin for inspiration.
The Ballyboden man recalled: “There was nothing in it. Then, last second, we get a free to try to win it by a point. I’d say it was inside our half, a really tough one.
“I remember the ball was there and thinking, ‘there’s no way I’m taking that’. He came trotting over and I was saying to myself, ‘Let’s see how good this lad really is’. And he pinged it straight over. That just said to me, ‘yeah, all the talk about him is worth it’.”
Shefflin went on to enjoy a glorious Kilkenny career and finished with 11 All-ireland senior medals – making him the most successful hurler ever.
He was initially lukewarm about management after he retired but agreed to guide his club senior team this year.
Success, almost inevitably, has followed.
Ballyhale are now an hour away from winning a record ninth Leinster title, though Keaney’s Ballyboden St Enda’s stand in the way.
Keaney, 36, can recall plenty of battles with Shefflin at club and county level over the years.
He said: “He mightn’t have been the fastest, the top at everything, but he was there all the time, just producing when you needed him to produce.
“We played them with the club in 2009, he was there with an early goal, loads of points from frees.
“We had nobody to mark him. Lads were nearly afraid to mark him because you didn’t want to get the stigma, ‘Henry scored so much off you’.”
Ballyhale are in transition these days, with a mix of established stars like the Fennelly brothers, TJ Reid and Joey Holden alongside a handful of rising stars just out of the Kilkenny minor ranks.
Ballyboden are a different proposition too from the one that blitzed Dublin and won a five-in-a-row between 2007 and 2011.
Keaney said: “When we played Ballyhale nearly 10 years ago, there was a lot of talk of the players they had then. Henry was in his prime.
“It doesn’t make any difference now, the young lads coming through for us are so confident, so used to playing Kilkenny teams and beating them at underage level.
“Kilkenny aren’t the team they were as seniors either, they are just like everybody else. I don’t think there is any rivalry, any awe factor with Kilkenny, or with Ballyhale.”
Keaney is keen to follow the lead of Dublin rivals Cuala who won the last two Leinster titles and went on to win All-irelands.
Of watching Cuala, he said: “That instils confidence.
“It’s like when you win the county football title in Dublin and you move into Leinster, it nearly doesn’t matter how bad a Dublin team plays, they nearly always win. Because there is this thing outside of Dublin, ‘Oh this is a Dublin team, they must be good’.
“That definitely exists.”