Ciarán Kilkenny returns from Aussie Rules

[Orchardman]

Cant believe someone wudnt even stick it out for 6 months til the summer at least, just experience the life when you are there of a professional, the training would do you no harm. At the same time, he has the chance to win the only all ireland he will likely win with his club castleknock.

People talk about the GAA needing to sort out the calender, and i give out about it myself, but he doesnt HAVE to play for all these teams. I really think the GAA have an impossible job in the fixture calander in terms of the amounts of teams to be considered

[Zulu]

Easily dealt with by preventing dual players at county level and players representing more than one grade at IC level. If, as in Ciaran's case, you're good enough to play senior football with the Dubs then he should not play U21.

Delighted to see him back (as a football fan), his ball to brogan for the goal opportunity against Mayo was one of the best passes I've ever seen and gives lie to those claiming kicking has deteriorated in the modern game.

[Zulu]

Why??

[INDIANA]

Easily dealt with by preventing dual players at county level and players representing more than one grade at IC level. If, as in Ciaran's case, you're good enough to play senior football with the Dubs then he should not play U21.

Delighted to see him back (as a football fan), his ball to brogan for the goal opportunity against Mayo was one of the best passes I've ever seen and gives lie to those claiming kicking has deteriorated in the modern game.

i agree with the u21 and senior idea.

i dont with the dual player - thats up to the individual in an amateur game

[Zulu]

Well there's 3 Wexford lads trying it this year I think, one or two Wicklow lads afaik, a few Limerick lads tried it, a few Waterford boys gave it a go too so it isn't as uncommon as you think. There's quite a few doing it a u21 most years, Damien Cahalan for example will do it for cork at u21 this year.

Let's take Damien as an example, he plays for the Barrs in hurling and Castlehaven in football and this year he'll play football for Cork between u21 and senior from now until August/September and hurling for the u21's through the summer (depending on their progress) so how many players between both clubs and both codes is he affecting?

More importantly, if you played the IC u21 football and hurling championships at the same time both would be over in 3 months thus clearing up more weekends for clubs and freeing up a lot of lads for their clubs. Do something similar and you would free up many weekends for the clubs. As you say, dual IC players are a small minority so why should they be allowed affect so many? They can still play both for their clubs but let them choose which one they want to play IC.

The point isn't to legislate for the small number of dual IC players but to legislate for the many clubs affected by them.

[Zulu]

No club will play without their best players and the more IC teams players can play for the less scope there is for CB's to fix games. Dual players can force players/clubs who don't even play the code in question to twiddle their thumbs for months on end waiting for the dual player(s) to finally finish up. This isn't a CB's problem as they've no choice but to wait and then games are crammed in left right and centre. Most lads now choose one anyway but if both codes were fixed for the same weekend at all levels nobody could play both and clubs would have more time yo play games. In addition other lads would get to experience IC in the code not chosen by the dual player.

[INDIANA]

No club will play without their best players and the more IC teams players can play for the less scope there is for CB's to fix games. Dual players can force players/clubs who don't even play the code in question to twiddle their thumbs for months on end waiting for the dual player(s) to finally finish up. This isn't a CB's problem as they've no choice but to wait and then games are crammed in left right and centre. Most lads now choose one anyway but if both codes were fixed for the same weekend at all levels nobody could play both and clubs would have more time yo play games. In addition other lads would get to experience IC in the code not chosen by the dual player.
[/quote

yeah to be fair cant argue with that

[Zulu]

Cadogan just announced he's playing football solely this year too.

[Zulu]

So you advocate forcing clubs to play without their county players? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you but I can't the logic in forcing clubs to play without their best players, that benefits nobody. The clubs are treated too shabbily as it is, to insist they play championship games without their best players would make a complete mockery of them altogether.

[Hound]

So Kilkenny will not be involved with the Dublin senior hurlers this year, according to Jim Gavin. But he will play both codes at U21 level. Will rejoin the Dubs senior footballers panel after Castleknock finish up in Junior championship

[Declan]

Nice interview in the Indo - refreshing attitude

LISTEN to Ciaran Kilkenny for just a few moments, as he articulates his reasons for dropping his anchor in Dublin for once and for all last Christmas, and the old cynic in you quickly fades away.

Is this the game blighted by so much deliberate foul play that it has warranted six months of work from a committee to overhaul it, that he's talking about?

Is this one of the games that has required tough legislation on sideline numbers to avert the potential for maelstrom?

Is this really a game under threat from other professional sports and suffering from the absence of a regular payroll?

Something else becomes apparent as you listen. Dublin football, and maybe even Dublin hurling, is in very secure hands for the next decade.

Kilkenny's belief that he was "raised to win All-Irelands" and not Grand Finals many thousands of miles away is a chilling shot across the bows of all of Dublin's potential rivals.

This young man, not yet 20 years of age, is sure of the direction he is taking in every aspect of life.

At Croke Park yesterday, where he was unveiled as one of the ambassadors for gaelicboots.com, a commercial initiative between the GAA and Gaelic Players Association – the profit from which will benefit player welfare – Kilkenny gave perhaps the most positive testimony for being a Gaelic footballer imaginable.

Even his intention to get an arts degree – Maynooth, UCD and St Pat's will be vying for that enrolment – in Irish and history so that he can teach these subjects is a variation on the same theme.

At the end of six weeks in Australia doing pre-season with Hawthorn, who had won the race to sign him, Kilkenny just knew that the AFL wasn't for him.

The lure of Gaelic games back home was too magnetic and that was the basis for his decision.

"Just the free-flowing flair that's in the GAA, just the end-to-end, just the passion in the game is phenomenal," he explained.

"That everyone out there is playing out of love of the game, and the love of their county.

"Just the passion, a jam-packed Croke Park, 82,000. It's unreal playing out there in Croke Park and I couldn't hide my love for the game at the end of the day.

"In AFL they take the mark and they go back and then when you're tackled, it's a ball-up or whatever.

"In GAA, it's just so free-flowing and it's so intense, and you can't really beat that.

"I'm glad I went out because it made me appreciate how much I cherish Ireland and how much I cherish the GAA.

"Homesickness wasn't an issue. It wasn't that at all. I didn't really miss my parents when I was out there!

"It was just the whole ... the connections and interactions you'd make playing for five or six teams, your club, your county. It's just brilliant.

"The whole GAA – you can go to the other side of the country and talk to a random person about the GAA, and you can be there for two or three hours.

"I could never hide the love or passion I have for the games. That was one of the main things that influenced my decision."

The average AFL contract is worth Aus$180,000 (e140,000). As a young international rookie with all the qualities to make it and already in the lead group for any of the endurance tests he did at Hawthorn, Kilkenny could probably have risen above that in time to come.

But a professional life of sport just wasn't for him, that realisation franked one day when he was checked from running out on to a field to do some extra kicking practice, a prohibition completely at odds with his free spirit.

"Just the whole professional lifestyle probably wasn't for me, because I just enjoy playing so much just purely for the love of the game.

"I remember when I was out in Australia, it was because I wanted to do well that I was going to do extra kicking and they said 'don't go out and do that'.

"And I was kind of like, the only way I feel I can get better is go out and kick a thousand balls and perfect my game.

"So I'd rather play the game I love out of pure enjoyment rather than it being my job.

"I thought I would have had a good chance of making it because I was doing pretty well at all the endurance aspects.

"I would be in the top group fitness-wise over there, so I thought I would have had a good chance.

"But at the end of the day I weighed up would I rather win All-Irelands in football and hurling and titles with my club and college and all these other aspects or win the Grand Final.

"I was raised to win All-Irelands. That was embedded in me – the whole tradition of my dad playing and my cousins and everything.

"I'm proud about our history and our culture, and I'd rather win All-Irelands than win Grand Finals."

Even before he left for Australia in late October, he admits he was having second thoughts.

"I think if I played any other game, I'd always want to just come back to the GAA because even when I was going, a week before I was about to go, I said to my parents 'Look, I think I'm going to stay'.

"But they said you might as well give it a go and have no regrets.

"I'm just glad that I went out – it made me appreciate what I have here and made me realise how much I love the GAA."

He hasn't ruled out the possibility of hurling with the Dublin seniors in the future but said his priority on his return was his club, Castleknock, and their All-Ireland junior club semi-final and then the Dublin U-21 footballers. Later this year he will commit to the U-21 hurlers.

"When I came back it was a bit of an emotional roller coaster. I've never hidden my love for the hurling, I love the hurling game and I'm not ruling that out."

[spuds]

Comes across a level headed guy. Is he any relation to Tony & Ollie Kilkenny that played hurling for Galway and Kiltormer back in the 80s?

[heffo]

Comes across a level headed guy. Is he any relation to Tony & Ollie Kilkenny that played hurling for Galway and Kiltormer back in the 80s?

Don't think so - he's a relation of some sort to Sean Purcell though - his family are Galway not sure if it's parents or grandparents

[snoopdog]

Pity Marty Clarke and Caolan Mooney didnt feel the same.
But in fairness its hard to deny the lads earning a living as a professional athlete even if it is to the detriment of Down football.

[spuds]

Comes across a level headed guy. Is he any relation to Tony & Ollie Kilkenny that played hurling for Galway and Kiltormer back in the 80s?

Don't think so - he's a relation of some sort to Sean Purcell though - his family are Galway not sure if it's parents or grandparents

Serious lineage if a relation of Seán Purcell.