Richie Power junior believes TJ Reid could become Kilkenny’s bear in the square in 2025.
With the Cats losing three experienced players to retirement in recent months in Cillian Buckley, Walter Walsh and Conor Fogarty, Kilkenny fans are again hoping that 37-year-old Reid will lead the team on the field next year.
Along with goalkeeper Eoin Murphy, Reid is the only outfield player remaining from Kilkenny’s last All-Ireland final win in 2015. Power has watched in awe at Reid’s whirlwind career in the decade since.
“I was only thinking about it the other day, I’ll be 10 years retired next year, I finished in 2015. TJ, his longevity, I don’t think it’ll ever be seen again,” he said.
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Power feels Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng should consider deploying Reid in front of the opposition goal, rather than asking him to be a playmaker further out the field.
“It’s just I suppose how well Derek utilises him, where he decides to play TJ next year, that’s probably going to be the big question. I’d love to see TJ probably in or around the edge of the square, and leave him there and maybe have that aerial threat,” added Power.
“Look, everyone is always going to go back to his age and you have to think about that too, he’s 37 years of age, he has a huge amount of miles on the clock.
“So, I wouldn’t expect TJ to be playing on a half-forward line and maybe having to do all the dirty work around the middle third. I genuinely think we’d get more from him and more benefit from him on a full-forward line and having that threat closer to goal.
“There’s no doubt about it that TJ has so much to offer the Kilkenny set-up but for me it comes back to the other younger players around him stepping up a level as well and trying to ease the burden and take the pressure off TJ to have to perform to a high level every day.”
Kilkenny are now a decade without Liam MacCarthy, which equals the county’s longest gap between titles. They went 10 years in 1922-32 and 1947-57.
“I’m sure it is a talking point and I’ve had that conversation plenty of times myself with guys,” admitted Power.
“I think if you were to think a bit deeper, you’re looking at the under-20s. We’ve only won one under-20 or under-21 All-Ireland in the last 16 years or so. We haven’t won a minor All-Ireland since 2014.
“I think that’s where we as a county need to probably concentrate on and try and bridge that gap and break those two statistics.
“TJ and Eoin Murphy are probably the last two or the only two connections to the last All-Ireland [senior] winning team in 2015 so there’s a lot of hunger in there in guys to get an All-Ireland medal.
“If Derek can just find three or four players that can add something to it throughout the league, we give ourselves a good chance going into the championship. There are probably four, maybe five, teams that can win the All-Ireland and Kilkenny are definitely in the conversation.”
Former Kerry player Fionán Mackessy might well be one of those players. Mackessy is now playing his club hurling with O’Loughlin Gaels and is training with the Kilkenny squad.
Longer-term, Power believes another of his former team-mates will eventually be standing on the Kilkenny sideline wearing the bainisteoir’s bib.
Henry Shefflin’s spell as Galway manager ended without any national silverware but Power feels the Ballyhale clubman, who enjoyed a glittering playing career, will still become Kilkenny manager in the future.
“Oh absolutely, I definitely think we will see it. It could be five years, it could be 10 years down the line, you just don’t know.
“Intercounty management was definitely the next step for him. He had done it all at club level, winning a county championship in Kilkenny and then going on to win a club All-Ireland so he ticked that box.
“Unfortunately it didn’t work out for him in Galway. With the amount of underage success Galway have had, for them not to turn that into senior success, for me it’s a bit of a mystery to be honest and I don’t think that should completely fall back on a manager either.”
– Power recently presented two local charities – Cois Nore Cancer Support Centre and Carlow/Kilkenny Homecare Team – with €3,500 each, with the money raises through the sale of the book, Power: A Family Memoir.
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