County success built on club support - Kenny

While the build-up to an All-Ireland final means a lot of work goes on, it only mirrors the hectic schedule that covers the Kilkenny GAA scene.

County Board chairman PJ Kenny was one of the many people working behind the scenes as the senior hurlers held their official media day, one of many duties he was undertaking in a busy time for all things black and amber.

“It’s been a busy year, my first as chairman,” he said. “It’s been a year of change, with the senior hurlers having a new manager in Derek Lyng, but it’s been an exciting year, full of challenges and exciting times.

“The weeks leading up to the All-Ireland have been very busy with a lot of things to organise,” he added. “Our open training session went very well. It was great to see so many young supporters there - they were there in their thousands to meet the team and wish them well for the final. There was also the media day to look after before we focused on the golf classic in Gowran Park and corporate night in Langton’s before organising the fun run Dunmore — and that’s while also organising tickets for the match. It’s busy, but very enjoyable.”

Work, and plenty of it, was a common thread of the conversation, but the chairman was quick to point out the many people involved in keeping the black and amber show on the road.

“This is a real team effort,” he said. “From Seamus Reade (Co Board secretary) and Caroline Clifford in Nowlan Park to Mary Morgan (PRO) and Paul Fitzgerald we have a lot of people doing a lot of work.

“That’s our job,” he added. “We have to let the players concentrate on the onfield side of things. It’s an enjoyable role. Sure, it’s busy, but it’s been highly enjoyable.”

Given the hectic nature of the championship, the work has been constant from the word go.

“The split season has certainly condensed things,” he said. “For a long time I was involved with the fixtures and while you were going all year round, your busy time was from August onwards. Now you have round-robin in minor and under-20, while the senior season is packed. It’s match after match, so there are times when everything seems to be non-stop — we also had the junior footballers involved in the build-up to the All-Ireland final — but that’s the way it is.”

And it’s not just the intercounty season that seems busier than ever. With an entire club scene to factor in, it makes for a packed calendar.

“It’s a balancing act,” he said. “Last year we had around 800 adult club games and close to 1,200 juvenile matches. That’s a lot of organising fixtures, referees, venues and a lot of work that is undertaken with the help of people like Willie Dempsey and the Bord na nÓg.

“You can’t forget the club,” the chairman continued. “That’s a link that always has to be there. The club is vital and, with the county teams, that’s what makes Kilkenny so strong.”

That strength and success is often reflected in silverware, but the chairman was quick to acknowledge that the first steps to those titles were built on the hard work of others who helped develop the players and fostered their love for the game.

“The work with teams and players begins at a young age,” he said. “I was at the Cumann na mBunscoil finals a few weeks ago and the standard of hurling was excellent. Looking at those finals you’d feel Kilkenny hurling is in a safe place and has a great future ahead of it. But that all goes back to what the teachers, the coaches and the clubs are putting into the game. That all feeds into the next step. We also have Michael Fennelly working in a performance lead role with the Co Board, so there will be a strong link between the schools, clubs and county set-up.

“They have to work together,” he added. “There has to be co-operation between everyone.”

And that work means, when a team wins, everyone has played their part.

“When a team wins it’s a victory made up of so many parts,” he said. “From the person who may have coached lads like Eoin Cody when they were children all the way up, everyone has played their part in making the players the men they are today.

We have 42 players in the panel, ranging from Killian Doyle and Gearoid Dunne all the way up to TJ Reid — they’ve all had people working with them over the years, helping to get them where they are today. That’s an incredible spirit for a county to have.

“It’s a great feeling when a team wins an All-Ireland,” he said. “It’s something that the whole county should feel proud of.

Hopefully everyone will come out and get behind this team as they bid to win on Sunday— they deserve every bit of support possible.”