Hurling & Camogie

All-Ireland semis so soon after Christmas not a runner says Ballyhale captain Michael Fennelly

Michael Fennelly led Ballyhale Shamrocks to the Tommy Moore Cup last year, and the Kilkenny champions stayed on course to retain that title after defeating Slaughtneil on Sunday. Picture by Seamus Loughran
Michael Fennelly led Ballyhale Shamrocks to the Tommy Moore Cup last year, and the Kilkenny champions stayed on course to retain that title after defeating Slaughtneil on Sunday. Picture by Seamus Loughran Michael Fennelly led Ballyhale Shamrocks to the Tommy Moore Cup last year, and the Kilkenny champions stayed on course to retain that title after defeating Slaughtneil on Sunday. Picture by Seamus Loughran

FORMER hurler of the year Michael Fennelly doesn’t believe it is “a runner” to stage crucial All-Ireland club clashes around the Christmas period, after helping his Ballyhale side overcome Slaughtneil on Sunday.

The last four games have traditionally taken place in early February, with the hurling and football finals at Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day.

Following a fixtures rethink the All-Ireland will finish up on January 19 this year. The semi-finals of the 2020/21 championships are slated for December 12-13, with the final after Christmas.

And Shamrocks captain Fennelly admitted preparation had been tough heading into their blood and thunder clash with the Derry and Ulster champions.

“I don’t think it’s a runner to be honest,” he said.

“Christmas is a time to switch off for a week or two, but you don’t even get to do that any more now. If it was a bit later in January or the middle of January at least you would probably have two weeks to prepare for it, so it’s too early to be honest.

“Initially I would have thought ‘yeah, it’s not too bad,’ but from doing it now, the practicality of it is not there. Your Christmas is cancelled basically, because you are mentally switched on.

“Christmas day you barely have a glass of wine with your dinner because you’ve got training the next day and we barely trained over Christmas to be honest. Henry kept us fresh, he kept us with our families as much as possible but mentally you are switched on and you can’t actually chill out and relax and meet up with friends or family.

“You are trying to get to bed early, you are minding yourself trying to get to the gym and mentally it’s tough.

“If I switch off for two weeks – which I did because I was away for a few days over Christmas up in Longford - it’s difficult to get back into it because the body…I’m 35 in a few weeks.

“In my position now, I definitely slacked off there in the second half big time and there’s definitely room for improvement.”

Fennelly is busier than most too, as the chase for a second All-Ireland title on the trot doubles up with dipping his toes into the world of inter-county management at Offaly.

And he admits the January 19 decider against Munster kingpins Borris-Illeigh could he his last in club colours, having stepped away from the inter-county scene in 2017.

“It’s not too bad; I find it hard to switch off,” he said.

“We had a game yesterday, and even yesterday evening until eight or nine I was doing stuff with Offaly, so I need to switch off earlier because my head would be going 24/7.

“Even though we are going well, I’m still just thinking of different things, different teams and different ways of lining out so I probably need to just switch off a bit more from that and try and balance both.

“But look, it’s working okay, Offaly is going okay, we are going okay with the club so thankfully it is coming to an end with the club to be honest. The last two weeks now, that possibly might be it now for me but we’ll see – we’ll weigh it up.”