The Kilmacud Crokes team that will contest the Dublin SHC Final on Saturday.
By John Harrington
The old saying that, in Cork, hurlers come up overnight like mushrooms could just as accurately be applied to Kilmacud Crokes in Dublin.
The Stillorgan club have a happy habit of bringing through talented young hurlers who make an instant impact in the senior grade after graduating from the club’s underage structures.
Brendan Kenny is fine example of this phenomenon, excelling at corner-back through the club’s run to Saturday’s Dublin SHC Final against Na Fianna.
He’s exactly where he planned to be. Playing in a match of this magnitude has always been his clear-eyed ambition from a young age.
“Yeah, yeah, it's been a dream of mine since I was a kid,” says Kenny. I was always thinking about that. I was jealous a couple of years ago looking at those two finals we won, just wishing I was down on the pitch.
“Obviously I was delighted but I was wishing I was involved myself too. It's a huge opportunity now for the club again and obviously for myself I just really want to grasp it.
“I've watched them winning titles and I've idolised a lot of those lads on the team for years. Playing alongside them, it's unbelievable being almost coached by them and seeing what they do and how they prepare and carry themselves on and off the pitch.
“It's just makes you really want to replicate them, like, they're great role models. You can see the way they hurl on the pitch, it's a reflection of the work they put in off the pitch and I just want to match that that work rate myself and be as professional as possible like all those lads are because that's what it takes to win a county final.”
Crokes have never been shy about promoting young players to their senior team, but it still must be a daunting enough challenge for their rising stars to make the grade considering the huge pick the club has.
Kenny estimates there were up to 60 players in his age-group coming through the underage ranks, so to even make those first choice XVs along the player pathway couldn’t have been easy, never mind breaking into the senior team while still being in the U20 grade.
“It was just a matter of always trying to perform, whatever team I was playing on, whether it was 15s, 16s, all the way up, minor, I just always wanted to be the best and we had some great coaches along the way, lads who really put a lot of time into us at underage,” says Kenny.
“It's people like that who you want to do it for on the weekend, to give a bit back because they've been coaching us and they've been travelling down to Cork and whenever all throughout the years.
“Then, yeah, I suppose just getting into the senior team was a huge thing, I was delighted. Just going into training with them and seeing how they train, their intensity, their work ethic, it's really astonishing”
Brendan Kenny, third from left, pictured with fellow Kilmacud Crokes clubmen, Conal O'Riain, Ciaran Donovan, David Purcell, Eoin Keys, and David Lucey, who all featured on the Dublin U20 panel this year.
Crokes were Dublin champions in 2021 and 2022 but were beaten at the quarter-final stage last year by Na Fianna who went on to win their first ever Dublin title and were unlucky not to also take provincial honours.
Kenny is wary of the challenge posed by a star-studded Na Fianna attack, but is hopeful a collective effort by Crokes will be enough to get the job done.
“I suppose the big emphasis, something we have a big emphasis on this year is our work rate. I think one of the lads was saying that when we don't work hard, we're only an average team.
“We're only a good team when we work hard and that's probably something that we've all lived by this year. Just being confident in ourselves that if we work hard that our own ability will be able to pull us through games. But without the work rate, we're a bang average team and we know that.
“We have the players so it's just about playing smart. And look, Na Fianna are a tough, physical team, they have some fabulous forwards and we're going to have to really tighten up at the back and our forwards are going to really have to be sharp because the Na Fianna backs, they won't make it easy for them. We know that.
“We know we have to match that intensity that they bring and hopefully bring even more, work even harder than them and just fight for everything like it's the last ball because if you give them an inch they'll pounce on that opportunity.”
Kenny is still in the foothills of his career but winning a senior club title is a peak he’s been eyeing up for much of his young life.
How would it feel if he could help Kilmacud Crokes to an eight Dublin Senior Hurling Championship?
“It would cap everything,” he says. “As I said, I've been dreaming about this since I was five or six years old. I remember, my friends' Dad (Gearoid O Riain) was manager in 2012 when we won, we beat Cuala in the final, and that was probably a turning point for me.
“That was a moment when I was like, yeah, I want to be down there. I remember just seeing the lads on the pitch afterwards and how delighted they were and I saw what it meant to everyone around the place, to all the families and I'd love to bring that joy to my own family now, to the whole community in Kilmacud.”
