Colin Fennelly: Personal disappointment on Kilkenny's day of triumph

Colin Fennelly had the honour of captaining Kilkenny to their first Leinster title in four years a fortnight ago, lifting the Bob O'Keeffe Cup in Croke Park.

The Cats had just overturned a five-point deficit during the second half to stun Galway, and it was as sweet a provincial triumph as the Nore-siders have enjoyed under Brian Cody.

But for Fennelly, there were mixed emotions after he failed to make a real impact on the game, and was called ashore after 52 minutes, before the comeback started.

"I was certainly hugely disappointed with my own performance," he reflected.

"I don't think I contributed enough for the team in the game so certainly that was hugely disappointing. It was hard to see us breaking through, we just couldn't break through Galway that whole game.

"When Richie Hogan got that goal, (I was like) 'What's after happening here?' It just totally opened up. Everybody has said it changed the game and he did and a spark like that changes it."

The Ballyhale man cut a disappointed figure when he was pulled off the field with 20 minutes to play.

"You are playing a Leinster final, you are in the moment... me walking off, if I was disappointed it was because I was absolutely gutted," he explained.

"I was speaking to Wally (Walter Walsh) after the game and he was saying how disappointed he was and I was like, 'Sure Wally, you're not going to be happy so why have a smile on your face?'

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"That's just the way it was and after the game I was absolutely delighted. I was out hugging the lads, patting them on the back, just saying, 'Thanks so much. Well done to put in such a huge performance'. The last 15 minutes was such a huge performance and I was absolutely delighted. For me, to get my hands on the cup was a dream come true and I was absolutely delighted no matter how I played. At the end of the day, it's a team and panel performance on any given day.

"Not having a good game, that has happened on many occasions. It's not something you want to see for your kids but I'm playing with Kilkenny now 10 years - that's just the way it is. It happens.

"It's a team sport at the end of the day. There's other guys to pick up the pieces - thank God!"

Full focus on the Déise

He will be eager to set the record straight against Waterford on Saturday.

"It is hard to get the form back," he noted. "You talk to the management team and the answer is always the same - you put the head down. You focus on the basics of the game and you work hard and you can't do much more than that.

"Once you play for the team things start to come around a bit. You just keep working at it because year-in, year-out I've lost it and you look back over the years and see how it went. You might have to change things up a small bit. I noticed going back into full-forward and focusing on that position helped me hugely but that might change again so I may have to look at things. But certainly mid-championship you just focus on the basics and work hard."

And Fennelly has the chance to set the record straight in training, as he looks to nail down a starting berth against the Déise.

"You'd be under pressure all the time," he said. "For every game. people out there might think, oh yeah, he'll start this weekend.' It's never the case. Grand if you think you played well but if you're going bad in training, Brian always goes by training. He always says, 'you're as good as your last performance'. And the last performance is the last training session played.

"We'll be under pressure. That's throughout the team."

Watch Kilkenny vs Waterford live on Sky Sports Mix from 5pm Saturday.