He describes hurling as the best game in the world, and some say it might be his best game too. Not that Ciarán Kilkenny has any regrets about choosing the life of a Dublin footballer.
If things had been different, he could have been preparing for Dublin’s Leinster hurling quarter-final replay against Galway. Instead, he’ll be glued to the TV, watching the game he loves best, yet still perfectly content with the game he’s chosen.
That may sound contradictory, partly because Kilkenny says all the right things about Dublin football and hurling. Still a few weeks shy of 22, he also has much to reflect on, not just his decision to choose football over hurling, but leaving behind the opportunity to play Australian Rules, professionally, at the end of 2011.
“I’ve so much respect for the hurlers,” he says. “It’s such a great game, the best game in the world. I just love watching it, and I love when I do get the chance with the college or with the club because it’s brilliant to play. There’s nothing better than plucking a ball from the air or the clash of the ash.
“But the physical athletic needs, to play dual, is just so difficult. I’ll be playing hurling with the club this summer and really I love the hurling game. And I’d be encouraging lads to play both with their club. I love going back to the club. We’re competing in the intermediate championship and we’re looking to win that this year. I’ll be involved with that and you can’t beat the craic with the hurlers as well. I think it’s important to keep playing at club level.”
Still, when it came choosing one game other the other, Kilkenny chose football, and not just because of the apparently greater chances of success: “Sure the (Dublin) hurlers have a good chance this year to win the All-Ireland. They’re flying in the league. I just decided that football was for me. I was lucky that I had that support, with my dad, to make that decision because as a young lad when you’re 18, all you want to do is play as much as you can, do as much as you can, in general.
“So I sat down with my dad, because he would be involved in making decisions with me, even when I went to Australia. He’s very sensible in that situation. I mightn’t be as sensible as my dad. And we just decided that I’d play football.”
There came last year’s cruciate injury, and if he didn’t have enough appreciation of what it means to play for Dublin in any code, he clearly has that now.
Fitting tribute
Sunday’s 27-point hammering of Longford was his first championship appearance since 2013, and somehow ending with a man-of-the-match was a fitting tribute to his patience over the previous year.
“You definitely appreciate it a lot more again,” he says, “playing championship football again, after being injured for the year. It was a tough, tough year. But I think mentally you improve as well,because you’re after getting over this monumental struggle and it makes you appreciate a lot more and it makes you hungrier as well.”
