AS for Eddie Brennan
himself, he’d be the first to
say that today isn’t about him.Nor is it, but one of the
takeaways from his adopted
county’s exploits is the rapid
rise in his managerial stock.
The concept of Brennan as a
manager initially sounded odd.
Defenders become managers;
midfielders become managers;
corner-forwards with tunnel
vision and one-track minds
who think in green flags do not
as a rule become managers.Brennan’s debut in the hot
seat, with the Kilkenny U21s, was
not an overwhelming success,
although the passage of time has
rendered their defeat by Limerick
in the 2017 All-Ireland final
considerably less of a blemish
than it looked at the time.In any case Brennan played
under a man for whom the
idea of excuses did not exist.
Nothing but the best will do.
It is no bad credo to bring to
an aspiring county. Standards
are everything. In Kilkenny,
yes, but in Laois too.SHOULD Cork win the
curtain-raiser, Laois – and
NOBODY saw this one coming- will have lasted longer in
the 2019 championship than
Kilkenny.
Contemplate that one for a
moment.Now contemplate this one.There’s a number of potential
panellists not involved
with Laois at the moment
for various reasons. The
shop window having been
overhauled and refurbished
under new management, it
would be nice to think that
next season they will be.LISTENING to some of the
astonished comments last
Sunday evening you’d have
been forgiven for swearing that
Eddie Brennan had reinvented
the wheel by letting his players
have a few drinks after the
McDonagh Cup final.The very notion that a
manager would unbend so
deeply!And as for the notion of
a team putting two fine
performances together on
successive Sundays, well,
who would possibly have
thunk it..?!Look: we live in an era where
inter-county hurlers and
footballers have never been
fitter, stronger or better
conditioned, an era where
most counties – and not a
few clubs - possess a cast of
thousands that doubles as a
backroom team.Of course, a team can win a
trophy, celebrate afterwards,
do a tailored recovery
programme in midweek and
go out and win again the
following Sunday.And if not, what’s the point of
all the money being spent on
strength and conditioning?4
5
6
LAOIS BAINISTEOIR,
EDDIE BRENNAN