It was April 2015 when Brian Fenton made his debut for Dublin, coming into the starting lineup against as a late replacement for Ciaran Kilkenny against Monaghan in the National League.
A memorable debut it was for Fenton too: he scored 1-1, his goal coming in the opening five minutes of the game.
That day, Diarmuid Connolly was sitting on the bench for Dublin, having just come back from a run with St. Vincent's in the All-Ireland Club Championship.
Connolly didn't know much about Fenton at the time. His knowledge of the 24-year-old has obviously increased since.
"He actually wasn't that tall when he was 18 or 19 and then he took a spurt and he’s about 6’5 now or 6’6, he’s a huge man," said Connolly Hill 16 Army's 'Blue is the Colour' podcast.
An hour with the legend that is Diarmuid Connolly. We look back on what has been an amazing career for club and county with the great man himself. It's @dermoc123 like you've never heard him before.
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On the day he returned to the panel in 2015, the number of new faces in the panel had Connolly perplexed.
I was looking around the dressing room, there were a few new faces and I was asking the lads – I wasn’t starting that day, I came on as a sub – ‘who are these guys?’ They weren’t really around the panel, they hadn’t been on under-21s teams so they weren’t really on the radar.
He gets a goal after two or three minutes and then I’m like, ‘who is this guy?’.
It just spiralled from there. He kicked on and kicked on and kicked on. He got better and better, he got more confidence. As a young lad coming into a team, you’re obviously overawed, I was the same at his age coming into a squad like that.
I just remember looking around asking ‘who is that guy?’ and then him scoring a couple of minutes after up in Clones.
That was Brian Fenton and he's kicked on since and he's been brilliant for us.
Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
