Kilkenny thrilled by Sigerson player-manager role
THEY say if you want something done, ask a busy person.
That’s probably why when St Pat’s were looking for a manager for their Sigerson Cup team, they turned to Ciaran Kilkenny.
Kilkenny is busy with studies so had to forgo the Dublin team holiday to Thailand this week.
There was also a Colleges League final to consider and as both captain and player-manager, he couldn’t leave.
“The way it works in the college, you get voted in as the club captain so you have to be player-manager then,” he explained.
It’s been largely non-stop since Dublin’s All-Ireland final win. There were celebrations and college and club commitments with Castleknock that saw the club gain promotion to division one football for 2016.
On that panel, there are still players who lined out for the club when they operated in division ten.
“I’m in my final year doing history and Irish so I have a lot of assignments now on top of me and I’m trying to train the college team as well on Tuesday and Thursday, and other commitments too.
“It’s tough going so I have to try and get the work done this week so I can enjoy the Christmas holidays.
“You’d be flat out since the All-Ireland. There’s managing the team, there’s going to schools and all that sort of stuff.
“So I’m just looking forward to a bit of a break, to recharging the batteries and then being fresh and ready to go again in the new season.”
There are more milestones ahead. The coming campaign will be St Pat’s first in the Sigerson Cup, having largely operated at Trench Cup level prior to this.
The teacher training college will also play in the colleges’ blue riband hurling competition, the Fitzgibbon Cup.
Where possible, Kilkenny will line out in both hurling and football for the college.
“This is the first year that we got the Sigerson for Pat’s so it was brilliant because we’ve been playing in the Trench for the last few years and we’ve been quite successful in that so we said we’d give the Sigerson a go,” he said.
“(We have) Diarmuid Murtagh from Roscommon, he’s a very good footballer and Adrian Vardy from Galway as well and Hugh McFadden, Donegal.
“We have a few lads on U-21 county panels that, so we’ve a good team.
“We’d like to fancy our chances against any team, give any team a good game. That’s why we went forward to the Sigerson.
“It’s a special year for the college that we have two teams competing at the highest level. We always had the hurling but to get to Sigerson now as well is brilliant.”