Ciaran Kilkenny immediately backs up Marc Ó Sé’s claim that he’s the best in the country

Niall McIntyre

Hard to argue with the Kerry legend.

Ciaran Kilkenny enjoyed a brilliant 2018 National League campaign. The Castleknock club man was widely considered as the most impressive performer of the whole competition with his positional change from the dogged, tracking half forward to the dangerous man on the inside line clearly giving him a new lease of life.

The gallant runner turned deadly sniper as his scoring returns improved tenfold and his freakish talent was put to good use, finally. He was getting on the ball in dangerous places and he threatened, threatened and broke the door down for the Dubs on so many occasions. Now he’ll be some weapon for Jim Gavin’s men come championship.

Because in fairness, what was actually the point of having a player with the talent of Ciaran Kilkenny using the majority of his energy to funnel back to reduce the impact of the man he’s marking? What’s the point in having him doing a job that the majority of other inter-county players, given the fitness that is now required of everyone to succeed at the level, would be capable of?

Ciaran Kilkenny is too good for that. He’s a man that can win games on his own but he can only do that when he’s given a platform to do that. Now we’re seeing the best of him. Now he’s plotting the destruction of the opposition with his innate speed, pace, power and skill.

He was given that licence to play his own game for the first time in his Dublin career this year and he’s made us all wonder why he was never given that opportunity before.

Ciaran Kilkenny has it all and Jim Gavin has seen that. Floating between full and centre forward in the majority of Dublin’s games,

Thankfully Jim Gavin has seen that and now we’re seeing the best of the 24-year-old as a result. And he’s only going to get better and better and better.

Kilkenny was in action for his club Castleknock when they took on St Brigid’s in the Dublin SFC on Saturday, and with the game live on eir Sport, Marc Ó Sé in his pre-match analysis singled out their star turn as the best footballer in the country right now.

“He played all his underage football in the full forward line. He can play anywhere.

“This year, what I’ve noticed about him is he looks an awful lot stronger. He has so much composure, he always does the right thing on the ball, and I’d go as far as to say he’s probably the best footballer in the country at the moment.”

"At the moment, he's the best footballer in the country" – @osemarc2 says Ciarán Kilkenny has the composure to play anywhere for Castleknock. #ClubChampionships #DublinGAA pic.twitter.com/TMYBxr2GWw

— eir Sport (@eirSport) April 28, 2018

It’s hard to argue with that, and with the former St Pat’s Drumcondra student stationed at the edge of the square for his club, he backed up O Sé’s claim fairly rapidly, scoring a crucial early goal.