Fennelly fighting for starting place

July 01, 2009

Kilkenny's Michael Fennelly
Kilkenny captain Michael Fennelly admits that he has a major battle on his hands to nail down a regular starting place. The Ballyhale Shamrocks clubman is aiming to skipper the Cats to their fifth consecutive Leinster SHC title on Sunday, but the only thing occupying his thoughts ahead of the clash with Dublin is whether or not he'll be playing. "My first thing is to stake a place in the team and that's what I'm trying to do," said Fennelly, who was substituted in the semi-final win over Galway. "After 70 minutes, if we win I'll worry about that (receiving the Bob O'Keeffe Cup) then. "Obviously, being captain is a great privilege and a great honour. I'm absolutely delighted to receive it. But number one to me is playing and if I can just concentrate on that and try take the captain element out of it, hopefully I'll be okay. "The Kilkenny panel is so tough and you could throw 10 players into any game at all and they'd do the same job as the first 15. "Basically, there's leaders all over the team. 'Cha' Fitz last year. Henry Shefflin the year before, Jackie Tyrrell - there's nothing put on them as such as captains in terms of any extra pressure. "Everyone takes on the pressure and any lad on any given day will stand up and take that on."

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