Retiring GAA Stars tribute thread - May cause brain/neck damage

Stop man. Mick Fennelly hasn’t been fit for as long as I can remember, he was never going to hurl for KK this year

Yeah, this is no real surprise. Ooh we’ll miss him.

1 Like

It was an absolute zinger mate. And it’s been agreed on here before a minor medal Outstrips those mickey mouse senior ones

Savage player, owes us nothing.

At his best he was an absolute colossus. Kudos to him.

A gaping hole left in midfield to be filled. As Homer Simpson would describe it, a crisitunity. Along with many, many other holes.

Will he continue to play with Shamrocks or are the Fennelly/Mullen family no longer wanted there?

Theres gonna be a few quiet years ahead before we get back to winning ways. No harm either truth be told. Bar beating Tipp the buzz has gone out of it the last good while. How long before the knives come out for Cody in that scenario?

Let’s see how DJ gets on with the u21s before giving Cody the hoof*

*Cody will go in his own time

He was a great player and obviously will be a loss; but the loss has been felt over the past couple of years too because he was nowhere near his best.

He wasn’t around for the business end of 2016 and obviously that ended terribly for KK but they still reached the final.

This year he did play but he was just nowhere near his previous levels. It’s a terrible shame when any player retires early but this one has been coming, and I presume Cody has known that.

From what I have seen of Kilkenny in various competitions and at various age grades, there is no like-for-like replacement waiting in the wings. But pretty much no one else had a Fennelly, an absolute powerhouse with the hurling brain that he had. Fogarty hasn’t been as effective in the past two seasons (maybe because Fennelly wasn’t helping) and they’ve also tried the likes of Hogan, Lester Ryan, Paddy Deegan. Leahy & Scanlon was the U-21 midfield and maybe one of them will be in contention.

Most likely they’ll be robbing Peter to pay Paul- Buckley, Walsh & Hogan are the standout candidates. But if you move any of them, you weaken what you left behind. Hogan was very poor this year by his high standards, maybe he’d enjoy the freedom of midfield, although obviously he’s not similar to Fennelly at all.

6 Likes

If the Mullens are unsuccessful with the attempt to move to the village they’ll play away with the Shamrocks but plenty of ill feeling there

Henry was the happiest man in Ballyhale after they won that U-21 final.

Would the village take them? Do they want to be taking players under a cloud from another club

Would there be bad blood between the fennellys and shefflin? Surprising after all they have won together if there is. What has it got to do with shefflin anyway.

Why was Henry the happiest man in ballyhale? Crazy situation looking in from the outside.

Because he’s training them at senior next year. Not bad blood between Henry and the Fennellys but seeing as they won this U-21 without the Mullins boys and justified the U-21 management sticking to a club rule that had been applied to a player for the south final, all in the face of huge pressure from the Fennellys, this is a problem that may have been nipped in the bud instead of being a problem for Henry next year.

If the Mullens end up leaving that would still be a fairly big problem for Henry. Either way, doesn’t sound like the most of harmonious of camps.

They’ll be alright. All of the winning U-21 team (Mullens not included), bar 1, are underage again next year. Won’t be long until they’re back challenging seriously again. The club stuck to their guns on this one. Would have been a lot less harmonious had they not.

So basically Ballyhale are moving on and rebuilding without the Mullens and Fennellys?

Shefflin should give James Fitzpatrick a call.

Did you hear for definite that this is the case?

No. But from what I’ve heard the Mullens won’t play for Ballyhale again and the Fennellys are in a bit of a sticky situation. Colin won’t be back until late Spring so maybe things will have calmed by then.

Considering Cha and Henry have both gone in recent years, to lose the Mullens and Fennellys aswell would be some loss of talent for a rural club in a small space of time