THE RETIREMENT of Damien Fitzhenry means Wexford has not only lost their first-choice goalkeeper of 17 seasons but one of the best goalkeepers in the game. After making his senior championship debut against Dublin in 1993, Fitzhenry, now aged 35, has decided to move on, although he will continue to feature for his club Duffrey Rovers.

“I’ve spent a lot of my life in hurling,” said Fitzhenry. “Seventeen years with the county team, or 20 years if you include minor and under-21. It was a massive decision for me, and in the end I felt it was the right time for me to hang up my hurl.”

During his 17-year county career Fitzhenry won one All-Ireland hurling title, in 1996, and three Leinster titles, in 1996, 1997 and 2004. He also won two All Star awards in 1997 and 2004, and will continue to assist his club Duffrey Rovers with whom he has also won four senior county football titles.

Meanwhile, Dublin footballer Bernard Brogan has paid tribute to midfielder Eamonn Fennell in helping to fill the shoes of the retired Ciaran Whelan. Fennell scored two points and was hugely influential in Dublin’s latest win over Derry at the weekend, despite the ongoing difficulties with his club transfer request from O’Toole’s – which saw him miss out on all of last year.

“It’s a long year when you can’t do anything,” says Brogan, “and you’re sitting on the sideline and you can’t get out onto the pitch. He’s a few agendas that he wants to prove and he looks like a man possessed out there.”

Yet Brogan is not getting carried away with Dublin’s early season form – which has seen them record impressive wins over Kerry and Derry: “The last few years we’ve been under a bit of pressure in the league. This year, there’s been a lot of new faces and a lot of young lads and the team has been very experimental. But the lads have worked well and got two great results.

“It wasn’t the prettiest of games on Saturday, but two wins out of two is good for this time of the year. Obviously, the management want to look at a few new lads and lads have shown very well and even if that’s all you get out of those games that’s a positive.”

“It was great to get the monkey of beating Kerry off our backs too so that’s two good things you can take from the league. But there’s a lot of football to be played yet.”