RENEWABLE ENERGY
Kilkenny has hit veteran status for Dubs but his fire burns brighter than ever
IN THE year of the last dance, there was one old stager who almost missed out on the showdown.
Luckily for Ciarán Kilkenny, Dublin’s veterans are going for at least one spin across the floor.
These are the long goodbyes – and after coming close to sitting out the 2023 one, Kilkenny is playing this year like a man who won’t be sidelined easily again.
Dublin’s triumph in last year’s All-Ireland was celebrated for the impact of its old guard, with Stephen Cluxton, Michael Fitzsimons and James McCarthy all winning their ninth Celtic Cross in the win over Kerry.
The desire among his teammates to get McCarthy up the steps of the Hogan Stand as a winning captain for the first time in his career was well advertised, but so was the impact of two of Kilkenny’s close peers.
He was born in 1993, a year that also welcomed Brian Fenton, Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion into the world. All four became essential to the great Dublin side built by Jim Gavin, as the next generation backing up the likes of
Cluxton, Fitzsimons and McCarthy. But if the return of Cluxton was one of the sporting sensations of 2023, comebacks by McCaffrey and Mannion were as important in getting Dublin to a title success that must rank as one of the most satisfying in their illustrious history.
Yet Kilkenny was in danger of drifting to the periphery of it all.
He won his eighth All-Ireland by the end of the campaign, starting and finishing the final, but only after a midsummer rupture that saw him lose his place for the two games before that.
His troubles began in the first of Dublin’s roundrobin fixtures a year ago, against Roscommon. He damaged a shoulder joint in the game, and had to sit out their next fixture, against Kildare. He was restored to the team for the routine victory against Sligo, but by then Kilkenny was vulnerable.
Speculation had it that management wanted a more direct approach to goal, and decided Kilkenny was taking too much out of the ball in buildups.
He was dropped for the quarter-final romp against Mayo, and the edgy semi-final win over Monaghan. He came on as a substitute in both matches, but his starting place in the final came about at least in part because of injury keeping Seán Bugler out. Kilkenny was open about the effect losing his place had on him, telling a podcast that ‘your emotions are going all over the place’.
He later told an interviewer: ‘As a player and individual, you’re going to be extremely frustrated with that. You’ve got to accept and think about it in the collective context but it can be very disappointing. You just need to take time and accept your role’.
It was the first time since establishing himself as a Dublin starter that Kilkenny had lost his place. He famously broke into the team as a 19-year-old under Pat Gilroy in 2012, sprung for an All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo in which he starred.
From then on, when fit, he started (he missed most of 2014 with a cruciate injury). His omission was layered with further complexity due to the man that dropped him; Kilkenny has known Dessie Farrell most of his life, and his early underage appearances for Dublin came under Farrell’s care.
Kilkenny’s candour last autumn in reflecting on losing his place was doubtless made easier by the fact that it all worked out. He had a fine game in the final, and has clearly responded to the wishes of management since then as he has stormed through 2024 so far.
He will only turn 31 at the start of July, and despite high mileage and the lung-busting style he has deployed throughout his career, there is no sign of decline.
Also on his side was the sheer depth of testimony amassed over a dozen years. As an underage player, he was a scoring star, but for most of his senior time, he has been used as a deeper forward. The one exception was 2018, when Gavin freshened up his approach and played Kilkenny in the fullforward line. He finished the season as the championship’s top scorer from play.
If the great reset with Gavin’s Dublin came after the shock loss to Donegal in 2014, Kilkenny was perhaps the most important part of the solution found by Gavin.
The buccaneering style of their first two seasons under his management were replaced by a much more methodical, possessionbased game. Ideas were filched from basketball, and Kilkenny became their point guard. Dublin’s overhaul was designed to pick apart blanket defences, which they did most brilliantly in the 2017 vaporisation of Tyrone in an All-Ireland semi-final.
Every feature of their play was marvellous, but the statistic that lingered was about Kilkenny: he had 62 possessions in the game.
He was the fixed point in their attacking patterns, a role that demanded discipline but also flawless technical accomplishment.
Defeat to Mayo in a gripping semi-final in 2021 was thought to signal the end of Dublin’s great days. Kilkenny was the only player in their team to win an All-Star in 2021 and 2022, another signal stat that points up his consistency, and which makes the dip of last summer look nothing more than a blip. The way he’s playing this year firms that up. He is back on the half-forward line, back in tireless service of the cause.
He kicked three points in the saunter against Meath and one against Offaly.
As he has done for most of his career, he is providing, labouring, covering, and never stopping.
He found himself cast as a commentator on the sorry state of Leinster football after the quarterfinal win against Meath, when speaking at a promotional event and insisting the Dublin players would have been happy to play the game in Páirc Tailteann.
He was also asked about the current obsession with the GAA calendar, and made the salient point that it suits players while acknowledging the move from September has caused some unrest.
‘I don’t know what needs to be done. I’m not a decision-maker in that regard,’ he said. ‘But I think there is more we can do to promote the games in that sense.’
He and his confreres will do their bit today against Louth, and the result of their efforts will only quicken the talk about the demise of the provincial championships.
They have certainly outlived their usefulness, and Dublin are facing another summer when they will only be tested weeks out from the All-Ireland final.
Farrell has said he’s tired of talking about it, but Kilkenny’s willingness to address it was a sign of his status now. He’s no longer the gifted teenager that forsook a potential career in Aussie Rules for a return to Dublin.
He never dreamed of winning grand finals as a child, he explained. It was All-Ireland finals that filled his head.
He’s seen plenty of them since, and if there is another one left in this Dublin team – andit seems certain there is – getting there will mean, once again, that Ciarán Kilkenny is at the centre of their schemes.
Speculation had it that management wanted a more direct approach
Ideas were filched from basketball and Kilkenny became the point guard