Dublin ace Kilkenny on glory trail

Dubs hotshot happy to let his feet do the talking after difficult year

WHERE he once lit up micro - phones, these days he is in the business of letting his boots do the talking.

Not that Ciarán Kilkenny was ever one for shooting off his mouth, but when he turned his back on a professional career with Hawthorn in the AFL at the start of 2013, he articulated his reason for bringing it all back home like few before him.

‘I was raised to win All-Irelands. That was embedded in me. I’m proud about our history and our culture and I’d rather win All-Irelands than win Grand Finals,’ was his punchline when he met the press for the first time to explain his return.

It took him just seven months to achieve that goal, although in truth it hardly needed a Celtic Cross to validate that decision.

But, perhaps, it is only now that we are seeing the absolute delivery of a talent that was seen coming from way down the road.

The only fear was that he was so good, so young that he would not be able to take the load. In 2011 he was the star- turn, along with Cormac Costello, on the teams t hat r eached and l ost both All-Ireland minor finals.

He was still a teenager when he was thrown in at the deep end to make his first start in the 2012 All- Ireland semi- f i nal against Mayo as a last-minute replacement — and responded by kicking over three points.

He surpassed the Hill’s expectations in the summer of 2013, he was Dublin’s best player in both the mauling of Kildare and, more significantly, in a far more testing Leinster final win over Meath than had been imagined, kicking four points.

They all but suspended betting for Young Footballer of the Year, and an All-Star seemed a given. But despite winning the All-Ireland, his stock dropped. He was benched in each of the All-Ireland series games against Cork (although the latter occurred so late it hardly mattered), Kerry and Mayo.

Earlier that summer, Kerry legend Jack O’Shea described Kilkenny as a ‘junior footballer’, which was technically true as his club Castleknock had competed in that year’s All-Ireland club championship while making the step up to intermediate. Cue outrage, though not from the player himself.

‘If he thinks I need to improve something in my game, I’d be the first to listen to him. No problem at all,’ responded Kilkenny when pressed.

But if O’Shea’s criticism was deemed to be derogatory, it was not without some grain of truth.

His use of the ball, carrying it into tackles, and his shot selection (he was frequently blocked down) reeked of naivety at times, perhaps underlined by a bizarre point he scored i n that year’s League campaign against Kildare when he also unintentionally provided the assist after his initial effort morphed into a Garryowen — which he caught himself.

But the tapering of his form at the business end of 2013 was less a reflection of his quality and more to do with the unrelenting pressure which he had been asked to bear, suggests former Dublin star and manager Tommy Carr.

‘I have absolutely no doubt that was down to inexperience, he just got a little lost along the way.

‘As a Dublin footballer, you have so much to take in. If you go that distance you have to remember that there is going to be at least twice the attention that would be on you if you were playing for Meath or Longford.

‘The expectations levels are huge when you are a young Dublin footballer and it is a big ask to cope with all of that when it is coming at you in year one,’ says Carr.

In hindsight, perhaps, the season- ending i njury, when he ruptured his cruciate ligament in the opening minutes of a League match last spring, was not the disaster it felt like at the time.

He is not yet at his full potential... he’ll become even better because he’s a smart player