CAT THAT GOT THE CREAM

THE sample size may be small but if John Donnelly emulates Kilkenny's previous Thomastown captain, then he'll command a special place in the county's history.

- BY PAT NOLAN

With Kilkenny one of the few counties that still has the county champions nominate their captain, Donnelly was the obvious choice when Thomastown swept to a most unexpected title last year just months after they had won an All-Ireland intermediate club crown.

It was just the club's second ever senior title the previous one having been in 1946. That allowed Dan Kennedy to captain Kilkenny in 1947, which turned out to be a storied year for the black and amber.

Cork had won five of the previous six All-Irelands coming into that year's final, which was celebrated as the greatest ever for years afterwards. Trailing by a point with time almost up, points from Jim Langton and Terry Leahy secured the title for Kilkenny.

Kennedy remains the only Thomastown clubman to lift the MacCarthy Cup but he was a native of Bennettsbridge and later played for Dicksboro too, which makes Donnelly the first truly local man to captain the county. Not that it was ever on his radar.