Young guns herald promising new dawn for Grennan men

When you think of this Thomastown team, the names of John, Robbie and Stephen Donnelly quickly come to prominence but lurking in the background is another Donnelly.

The youngest of the four, Eddie has gone about his business quietly in manning the defence from centre back and after a tough few years, he’s delighted to have his day in the limelight.

“In the four or five years I’ve played I’ve got to four county finals and one semi-final and lost all of them except one so when we got out of Kilkenny the pressure was off us and we got a good run in Leinster then and finished it off with two great wins so I’m thrilled.”

Eddie captained the club to a first under-21 title at the end of 2022 and he cites that win as a big turning point in their fortunes.

“Even coming into the county final this year I had doubts in my head saying will we ever do it, but I think winning the under-21 Roinn A championship last year after extra-time for the first time ever, and with so many players involved from the senior team, that gave us a winning mentality,” he said. “We’ve known how to get over the line ever since.

“The mix of everyone from the older lads with the experience and then the younger lads who have no fear and keep going all day is perfect.

“We’ve good hurlers with a good head on them and the management have been excellent too in setting us up with a great gameplan. Noel (Doherty) has always said control the controllables and work hard and we did that and got the reward in the end.”

Alongside Donnelly in the half-back line was Zach Bay Hammond after the underage star fought off a hamstring injury that ruled him out of the county final

“This was my first year playing fully with the club all the way through the season and I gave it my all,” he said.

“I’m absolutely thrilled and I couldn’t ask for much more, we’ve been playing together as a tight-knit group and it’s made things easier.

“You just have to have faith in all the lads beside you and that they’ll back you from minute 1 to 60.

“My family has also been a great help and they’ve always pushed me to go as high as possible,” he said. “My grandmother is a Fennelly from Ballyhale so I kind of grew up around hurling and these nights are very special.”