John Fogarty
IT’S ironic yet entirely appropriate that Eddie Brennan epitomised the ruthlessness of this great Kilkenny team and, at the same time, was the one player who openly feared losing his starting place.
Brennan was driven but he was also steered and stirred by Brian Cody into becoming the best goal-scorer of the last decade.
The pair had their run-ins, of course. Being the GPA representative in a Kilkenny camp where the management queried why there was a need to when all their requirements were seen to was no picnic on occasions.
But Cody knew what made Brennan tick. Quite often in the early part of the season, the Graigue-Ballycallan man might have found himself on the bench or substituted early.
It was only a mechanism utilised by Cody to get the best out of him. Raise the carrot and show the stick. Plenty of it. Take a little of what he wants away from him and see how much more he’ll reach for it.
Deep down, he was Cody’s kind of player. As stylish as he was, there was always a meanness to Brennan’s nature. An exposed jugular never went unpunished.
His duel with Seamus Hickey in the 2007 All-Ireland final mightn’t have been pretty but in his eyes it was necessary to distinguish man from boy.
But his merciless trademark was that early goal. The portent of doom. The score that aroused such suspicions of inevitability.
“Brian [Cody] would have never said anything about hitting early but he always told me to stick to the things I am strong at,” Brennan told the Irish Examiner yesterday.
“A good start is no good unless you build on it. But the start of matches is a great time to strike because somebody is often more prone to making a mistake.
“In 2005 [All-Ireland semi-final v Galway], Damien Joyce came out for a ball ahead of me. He did everything right but the ball skidded on the ground in front of him. If he had got the ball I’d have looked awful stupid.
“But it came through to me and all I thought was ‘here we go, there’s only one place this is going’. Damien stood behind me every time afterwards and I was able to pick off a few points.
“I remember Peter Barry always saying to me to run at defences because he could see they feared it. I kept that in my mind.
“It wasn’t about always going for goal. There was never anything specifically planned. I’d create it for somebody else if the play developed that way. It was about reading the situation in front of me.
“Like in last year’s final [for Richie Hogan’s goal], I saw Conor O’Mahony out on the right and knew that the pitch was opened up for me. Having Eoin Larkin and Richie Hogan running with me and creating options made it a lot easier.”
Psychologically, Wexford players have spoken of being beaten by the sight of the black and amber jersey. An early Eddie Brennan goal was just as effective in diminishing teams.
Beyond those eight glittering All-Ireland medals, that’s what he’ll be remembered for. Distinguishing himself in a distinguished team.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/uhe0eoJjPV8/post.aspx
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