[1] His skills were also honed on the family farm where he, along with his six brothers – Michael, Ger, Kevin, Brendan, Liam and Dermot – trained.
[2] By 1978 the new club had reached the top of the local hurling world and Fennelly played a key role as Ballyhale captured their first senior county title.
Once again Ballyhale Shamrocks reached the All-Ireland final where the star-studded St. Finbarr's club from Cork provided the opposition.
At the full-time whistle Ballyhale were the winners by -15 to 1-11 and Fennelly collected his first All-Ireland club medal along with his six brothers.
Ballybrown stormed into a six-point lead during the first-half before Fennelly scored a goal in the twenty-fourth minute.
At half-time Ballybrown still led by four points, however, a surge by Ballyhale saw the Kilkenny side claim a 1-16 to 0-16 victory.
[6] Fennelly first came to prominence on the inter-county scene in the mid-1970s as a member of the Kilkenny minor hurling team.
That year Fennelly captured a Leinster title when Kilkenny recorded a comprehensive 5-10 to 3-6 victory over Wexford.
A close and tense affair developed between these two teams, however, at the full-time whistle Tipp were the one-point winners by 2-9 to 0-14.
Fennelly, however, found it difficult to nail down a starting place on the championship team that already contained his two brothers Liam and Ger.
‘The Cats’ bounced back in 1986 with Fennelly collecting a second National League medal before nailing down a place on the championship fifteen.
A goal by substitute Noel Lane with seven minutes left to play gave Galway the edge and they hung on to win by 1-12 to 0-9.