Former Kilkenny star Martin Comerford thinks that the Cats senior hurling side has been left with some big holes to fill amid recent retirements.
James ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick, Eddie Brennan and now PJ Ryan have all walked away from the current All-Ireland champions, with another man who retired in recent years – Comerford – saying that their departures will pose a challenge for all-conquering Kilkenny manager Brian Cody.
"It’s going to be a big gap in the panel in my opinion, even from a training point of view" Comerford was quoted as saying in the Irish Examiner.
"Brian likes to play 15-on-15 and if you take ‘Cha’ or Eddie, they would have been testing a player.
"Look at a corner back. He might be on an inexperienced panel member, whereas Eddie’s experience and speed would have tested him. You’d know what you have going up to Croke Park if you were trying out a new lad. You’d know he was tested on a quality player of Eddie’s standard before you left Kilkenny.
"The same for ‘Cha’, who was part of four lads trying out for midfield. You knew if either of the Michaels (Fennelly and Rice) were good enough to hurl ‘Cha’, they were good enough to hurl any other midfielder in Ireland.”
Comerford, meanwhile, added that Brennan’s decision to retire was quite a shock to him.
The man affectionately known as ‘Gorta’ by his own fans added: "I thought he had another couple of years in him.
“If you gave him a chance of a goal, he always took the gamble of going for it rather than taking a safe option. You never saw too many of his shots saved, he always sent them low off the sod.
"He was a great man to train and a great leader in that Kilkenny panel. He will be a very big loss. It’s hard to think of a Kilkenny team without Eddie Brennan there."