Player Interviews
Joe Brennan - Glenanne

Stephen Butler moves to Belgium-club Dragons – who could yet be an opponent in the 2010/11 EHL – while Clinton Murphy and Paul Fitzpatrick retire from first team hockey.

Speaking about their retirements, team captain Joe Brennan says it has made for great banter on the training field in recent weeks at Glenanne Park.

“Because of the squad is aging, at training for the last four or five weeks we’ve made practice games between the young guys against the old guys. I even make it into the young guy group; that’s how old we are, because I’m 28. It’s made training very intense and great craic.”

As Ireland’s all-time leading caps winner and goalscorer to boot, Butler’s emigration is the most eye-catching of the three but Brennan was effusive in his praise for Fitzpatrick and Murphy.

The pair have been ever-presents during a period of sustained success with the latter claiming virtually every honour in Irish hockey, doubling up for the second team at many points in his career.

“It’s funny, Clinton actually retired from hockey four or five years ago, had his party and a night out and then was captain the next year and won the senior cup! He is one of the most decorated players around.

“People like Fitzer and Clinton bring a huge amount more to the squad than what people think. People may look at them in a certain respect but they can still compete at this level and although you may say Clinton is not the most orthodox player at times, he still came off the bench on Sunday [in the Irish Senior Cup final] for 15 minutes and did a job.
“They’re very important to our team, very important at training, talking to all the young guys and have as much to do with how the young guys develop, maybe more so than Stephen, Graham [Shaw] or myself. We really hope that we’re going to keep them involved in some way.”

As for Butler, as a multiple Hennessy Cup winner and the image most non-hockey people associate with the game in the country, it will be a poignant moment as dreams of a first ever national double would be the perfect send-off.

And Brennan believes it could well be the most fitting of send-offs for the midfield powerhouse, “Stephen’s been having a great laugh this season and we’ll all be sad to see him go. In fairness to him, this is the most positive year he’s ever had with us.
“Half way through the season, he realised instead of getting frustrated at times, this is his last year and he’s making the best out of it, nothing but positive and you can see by the way he’s playing. It’s probably the best he’s ever played for us.”

As for the IHL fixtures, themselves, Brennan believes a certain amount of the pressure is off following with an EHL place already secured but there is a desire to right previous wrongs and a freshness in the camp to see it through.

“The last time we were in this situation, playing Pembroke in a semi-final, we lost 7-1. We were exhausted as we’d made it quite far in all the competitions. This year, Arul and the management have managed it quite well.

“We were criticised for what happened at the end of the Leinster league. After we lost to Fingal, we gave up and said ‘we’re going to take a proper break’ and took three weeks off so everyone is very, very fresh.

“I do think Pembroke have a lot of pressure on them. For them not to qualify for the EHL would be a disaster because of the team they have but it’s just the way the draw has fallen. Honestly, I’d prefer to play them in the semi-final but it’s going to be an absolute cracker of a game.

“For our club, it would be outstanding. We don’t have the luxuries of a lot of clubs. We struggle in a lot of ways to try and do things because the financial backing isn’t always there.

“To do the double would be unbelievable and something we really want to do, especially for people like Graham and Stephen. It may look like we’ve over-achieved but we feel we’ve under-achieved, losing two of these finals. We haven’t won [the All-Ireland] in ten years and it’s the one we want more than anything.”

Interview conducted by Stephen Findlater, Freelance Journalist on behalf of the IHA