Graigue Ballycallan’s Eddie Brennan is pictured in Dublin ahead of the AIB GAA Leinster Intermediate Hurling Club Championship Final where they face Portlaoise on Saturday, December 1st at Nowlan Park.
By Eoghan Tuohey
Eight-time All-Ireland winner, Eddie Brennan, faces an unexpected and somewhat bizarre situation this Sunday when his club Graigue Ballycallan take on Portlaoise in the Leinster Intermediate Club Hurling final.
The newly appointed Laois senior hurling manager will be squaring up to several current, and some past members of the squad he is now in charge of, an unusual situation by any standards. The legendary Kilkenny attacker has some interesting tactics in mind to turn the odds in his favour!
“I'm trying to keep pushing plenty of food into Tommy (Fitzgerald) this week anyway and get him bulked up so he won't be able to run around," joked Brennan. "It's an unusual one, it's gas, the two of us would have spoken maybe four weeks ago. It kind of dawned on me. I said, 'Ye won the senior B, are ye in the intermediate (in Leinster)? Are we in line to run into each other?'
"In a way, you're kind of hoping that doesn't come to pass. Then after the semi-final when we beat Fethard the first thing I was concerned about was who won the other one. When you heard it was (Portlaoise), it's the man above having a dark sense of humour. That's just the nature of it, no more than two club guys squaring off to each other in Fitzgibbon or Sigerson. It'll be parked up for an hour on Saturday and whatever happens, happens.
"It's him or me, that's the way it will be. We've agreed to stay at opposite ends of the pitch and not try to run into each other too much. Just looking forward to it, it is what it is. It's a Leinster final with your club which is just phenomenal, mental really. Looking forward to it in a big, big way.”
Tommy Fitzgerald, who Eddie Brennan manages with Laois, will be a Portlaoise opponent in Saturday's Leinster Intermediate Hurling Final.
The ace marksman, who retired from Kilkenny duty in 2011, has been a club stalwart for many years. Indeed, himself and fellow former county star, James Ryall, are the only surviving members of the All-Ireland Senior Club runners-up side that were defeated by Athenry in 2001, the year in which the club reached its greatest heights to date. Brennan was asked how long he would have expected to still be hurling in the years after his retirement.
“I don't know, certainly not this long anyway. I'd say certainly if you'd asked my wife she'd have said, 'No'. About two or three years ago she'sd have wanted me to pull the plug on it. But without that kind of support too, the biggest thing is probably seeing the young lads and even the kids in the club. Especially my own kids, they're getting a kick out of it.
"It's more the social outlet of it for them, they're going out and about and experiencing that. I know what it was like in 1987 in our club when we won the intermediate and my father was playing corner-back on that team. I can distinctly remember it and the cup coming into school. In a way it's coming around full circle and as regards sowing the seeds for the next generation to me is a big benefit for our club”
“As regards putting a time on it, I didn't. Whatever it felt like and to be fair Declan Browne has been excellent in how he's coached and managed our club. He has never put pressure on me. This year I made a conscious decision to get regraded to Junior and I played Junior B all year. We won the league and championship of that and it just meant you were getting the guts of 12 or 13 matches during the summer when there was nothing else happening.
"It just stood you in good stead going into the championship. I would have said straight up to Deccy, 'Whatever you want. If it's coming in for 10 minutes, if it's just being in the dressing room, if it's just being there training, whatever it is.' In that way I didn't put any conditions on it and just take it as it comes.”
Eddie Brennan of Graigue Ballycallan celebrates with his children Harry and Maeve and team-mates Sean Ryan, left, and captain Darragh Egan following the Kilkenny County Intermediate Club Hurling Championship Final between Graigue Ballycallan and Tullaroan at Nowlan Park in Kilkenny.
6 different Kilkenny clubs have claimed the Leinster intermediate title in a row, a continuation in the trend of Kilkenny county champions claiming further glories. After many years in the doldrums, Ballycallan appear to have established a balanced squad with plenty of depth, and a delightful concoction of youth and experience. In 2019 they will be playing senior club hurling in Kilkenny, something that might extend the career of one of their most famous son’s just a little further.
“Certainly, it's attractive. There's no doubt about it. You look at it and say, 'Am I in the way or am I actually contributing something?' And that's the reality of it because if I can help in some way - it's all about the young lads in our club. I got huge satisfaction out of the county final, seeing them win something and watching how they've kicked on in the last couple of weeks.
"They're the future of the club. It's certainly not about someone like me anymore and it's brilliant to see them get a county final under their belt and go into Nowlan Park in those surrounds and excel and succeed. Particularly the way the county final went for us this year, it's a great way for lads - and I know myself, that winning habit gives you belief and confidence to go forward. I would have huge, huge hope for our club in a couple of years' time why we can't be knocking on the door and winning seniors.”
Returning to his current managerial role, it was put to Brennan how he would feel if he were to come up against Kilkenny and found himself pacing the side-lines facing off against Brian Cody, the man who was at the helm for each of his All-Ireland victories. It’s a situation he’d like to avoid, ideally, but depending on how well Laois fare in their league campaign, it’s not an unthinkable scenario.
Eddie Brennan of Graigue Ballycallan celebrates a late score during the Kilkenny County Intermediate Club Hurling Championship Final between Graigue Ballycallan and Tullaroan at Nowlan Park in Kilkenny.
“In a way, you're hoping that that won't happen, in some regards. But, at the same time, you enlist, you soldier, it's as simple as that. If it happens, it happens, and that's just the nature of it.
"I don't know what it'd be like to have him staring down the side-line at you, it was bad enough having him staring across the pitch at you when you weren't performing! Look, I suppose where we're tucked in at the moment, the only way that might happen is if you were to qualify for a league quarter final, you might run into them, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Brennan will have honed his management skills during a two-year stint with his native county’s U-21 side, where he claimed a Leinster crown in 2017 before suffering a defeat to Limerick in the All-Ireland final.
This will be his first inter-county assignment, and he will be keen to revitalise the Laois hurlers, who had a distinctly average season in 2018, failing to qualify for the final and finishing fourth overall. It’s an opportunity that he’s relishing, and has already begun the preparations in solidifying his squad for the forthcoming season. He was asked what key learnings he took away from his time with the Kilkenny U-21s.
"Probably trust what you're seeing, to be honest with you. In Alex Ferguson's book, on leadership, one of the things he said is that, as a manager, you have to look at is what you're seeing and what you're hearing on the training field. I like being active in a training session. If I was to be bluntly honest, coaching would appeal to me more than management, because you can get in there and run a session.
"But from a management perspective, I've found, you're managing a lot of things outside of the training group, county board, organising, making sure pitches are available, implementing all those kinds of things, but, what I would have learned is, you have to trust yourself as well.
"You're guided by the people around you, and you take on board that information, but you're ultimately responsible and you have to be comfortable in taking on that responsibility. Sometimes, that just doesn't work out, it's negative and it comes from a negative perspective, and after that, you say to yourself not to do the same thing again.
"You have to trust what you're seeing and your gut feeling will often guide you through a lot of things in life."
