SENSE OF LOSS NEVER GOES AWAY
Fennelly explains how Ballyhale Colin and bad balanced the good times have
‘WE KEEP THE LADS’ JERSEYS IN THE DRESSING ROOM STILL’
GLORY and grief make for odd bedfellows but in Ballyhale they are tucked up together for another winter. Glory has never been a stranger to the most successful hurling club in the land, but grief has become an increasingly frequent, and less welcome, visitor.
And yet, it is the latter which reaffirms the worth of the club in a way seven All-Ireland titles never could.
Colin Fennelly has spent almost half his lifetime hurling for the club – the 30-year-old is now in his 14th season as part of the senior panel – and has been rewarded with eight county medals, five Leinsters and four All-Irelands.
It is quite the haul but you know he feels it all amounts to very little when his thoughts turn to a grief-burdened local family who have been dealing with unimaginable grief after a tragic accident in early autumn.
Eugene Aylward was killed when his car hit a wall in the early hours of October 5, later that day he had been due to tog out as part of the Ballyhale panel to play Clara in the county quarter-final.
Less than a week after his passing, that game took place and when it was all over, Fennelly realised they had earned something far more precious than a place in the county semi-final.
‘It’s a massive drive for us to do everything we can for that family – even though it’s probably only the smallest thing,’ said Fennelly.
‘The smile you bring to their faces is probably the biggest thing. When we played Clara out in Danesfort, we barely got through that game.
‘The family were just over to the side as we were warming down and they were just all there together, and they were clapping.
‘Just seeing the smile on their faces was the biggest thing, and it motivates you to drive things on,’ explains Fennelly.
But it wasn’t the first tragedy to visit the club. In April 2018, the team lost another of its panellists, Eoin Doyle, who died in a motorbike accident.
‘They were first cousins and best friends, and you would think that the tragedies were related somehow but they weren’t,’ says Fennelly.
‘Eugene was just picking up his girlfriend in town and just came home and lost control of the car.
‘It’s just fierce disheartening for the club and the two lads were huge personalities. It was probably tough during the matches and after the matches because the lads would always be there and always be smiling and always having the craic.
‘We keep the lads’ jerseys in the dressing room for every training session and every match, and it’s a huge drive for us.’
In reality, Fennelly and his teammates have grown up with that sense of loss for most of their adult lives.
Before Eugene and Eoin, Sean Malone and Martin Duggan were killed in a car crash in 2011. The pair were best friends, with Sean, 18, having succeeded Martin, 19, as the club’s minor captain.
They played, trained and socialised together and while that double tragedy will have lost its rawness to the outside world, it is still felt within the community and the club.
‘Sean and Martin were playing Under 21 with me at the time, and they crashed just up the road from where Eugene crashed. ‘That’s four young lads that would still be hurling on our team today. It was a huge tragedy again for the club and probably other people forget, but the club certainly doesn’t forget.’
And it never will.
The neutral support in today’s Leinster final will understandably attach itself to St Mullins with the Carlow champions appearing in their first provincial decider.
Outside observers will see this as a game between the games ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’, and it may invite the prediction that the minnows will have the edge in motivation and desire against opponents sated by serial success.
The reality is likely to be otherwise and it is not just the deep sense of personal loss that is driving Ballyhale. It is an aspect of their dressing-room culture that the pain of defeat is more acutely felt than the joy of victory.
Fennelly enjoyed one of his best seasons in a Kilkenny shirt this summer. He was a pivotal figure in their run to the All-Ireland final, providing the team with a trustworthy target in the full-forward line. And he made his mark too, racking up 3-9 from play – including 1-3 in the All-Ireland semi-final win over champions Limerick – which was enough to earn him a second All-Star award, five years after claiming his first.
For all of that, the final outcome – a 14-point savaging from their neighbours Tipperary – thieved much of the satisfaction from the journey.
‘You do try to come to terms with it but it’s in the back of our minds now and it’ll be in the back of our minds next year when we are playing with Kilkenny,’ Fennelly adds. ‘When you are with the club, you separate yourself from it alright but when you go back to Kilkenny next year it will be there. You certainly don’t dwell on it, but you probably try to learn from it more than anything at this stage.
‘But it’s a huge disappointment to get that far and lose the way we did. There’s nothing you can do about it now so there’s no point holding regret about it,’ says Fennelly, who hasn’t watched a re-run of the final – nor does he intend to do so.
‘I’m one that never looks at the match. Some team managements would urge you to look back on mistakes but I just absolutely hate looking back over a game no matter how good or bad we play.
‘I just put it behind me and am happy to try to think of the good things that happened. There can be too many bad things when you look over it for real,’ he laughs.
That capacity to look forward is a shared one.
In the aftermath of Ballyhale’s five-goal blitz of Wexford champions St Martin’s, the Kilkenny champions were installed as red-hot favourites to collect a 10th Leinster title with the expectation that they will go on to retain their All-Ireland crown.
But they will not be fooled by soft words or short numbers, especially when Henry Shefflin has their ear.
‘Mentally we are probably just so used to ignoring all that, which is probably the best way to go about it,’ adds Fennelly.
‘We just stick to the same game plan, we go over video analysis and we have our team talk and we train hard.
‘Last week at training Henry even pulled us in and said “this isn’t good enough, it’s just too soft.” It was a huge jolt and he was right to do it,’ he explains.
It also invites the observation that Shefflin was merely borrowing a page from the Brain Cody coaching manual. The sense is that someday soon Shefflin may well succeed the most successful manager in the history of Gaelic games.
‘Henry had a huge amount of respect as a player and he holds massive respect as a manager.
‘We listened to what he said in the dressing room as a player and we now listen to him as a manager. It’s no different – you just follow on from him.
‘Brian is doing a great job as it is while Henry is enjoying it with Ballyhale, but it’s just timing I suppose.
‘But he certainly would be a great candidate because everyone respects him.’