By John Harrington

Ciaran Kilkenny was happy to sacrifice his natural game if it helped in any way to get Dublin over the line in last Sunday’s All-Ireland SFC Final.

The Castleknock man has been a key play-maker for Dublin all year, and in the semi-final against Tyrone racked up a highly impressive 62 possessions.

But with Mayo man-marker supreme, Lee Keegan, sticking tightly to him in Sunday’s All-Ireland Final he struggled to have his usual influence on the contest and finished the game with 20 possessions.

That’s partly because Kilkenny decided to take one for the team by dragging Keegan out of position and giving others the space to play in the parts of the pitch where he normally would operate.

“Yeah, I did my role for the team,” said Kilkenny yesterday.

“If he was going to give me extra attention, I go into different spaces and release that, so that was my role. That’s the way it happens, he’s a brilliant footballer, he’s a great player, he’s achieved a lot.

“He’s a great footballer, he’s a very passionate Mayo man. I have a lot of respect for him.

Keegan came out on top in their personal duel, his brilliant second-half goal giving Mayo a life-line at a time in the game when it looked like Dublin were starting to gain control.

“In fairness, he has a great engine, he has a great turn of pace,” says Kilkenny.

“I had him but then he just got loose for a second but at the end of the day lucky enough the team got over the line.”

Kilkenny was giving his marching orders deep into injury time for a black-card foul on Keegan as David Clarke attempted to take a short kick-out but has no regrets about his actions.

“No, not at all,” he said. “It was the 75th minute. David Clarke is incredible on the kick-outs, getting them off short. He’s incredible. So I did what I thought was the best decision for the team at that moment.

“At the end of the day, any man is willing to do what he can for his county. If you were there in the last minute of an All-Ireland final, what would you do?

“That’s every player’s thought process.”

After the final whistle Kilkenny took a few moments to speak to a distraught Keegan.

“(I said) Well done, you had a great year,” said Kilkenny. “I said we have so much respect for you, you’re a great team. Every year when we’ve played them, we’ve had great battles.

“They go man to man at us we have great respect for them. They go at you, they play a good open brand of football.

“They’ve been a great team over the last couple of years; they’ve been to finals, semi-finals; whenever they did lose, they’ve lost to the winner. One of the best teams around.”

Not quite as good as Dublin though, who once again showed their winning mentality in those eight minutes of injury-time.

Their ability to find a way to win tight games is one of their defining characteristics and Kilkenny puts it down to the tight bonds within their panel.

“You just need to trust…we have massive trust in each other, you just need to keep going as long as you can, and if we all commit to that, hopefully we get a collective performance and win. We believe in that big time.”

A third All-Ireland Final in a row won’t sate this Dublin team’s appetite. Kilkenny is adamant they’ll be just as hungry for success again in 2018.

“At the end of the day, the group that was in the dressing-room at the end of the All-Ireland final…that whole group, everyone in that room…come next year, there will be different personnel involved; management, players and backroom team.

“A new year is a new journey, a new start. We’re firmly focused on next year already. You have to enjoy and embrace the time with each other and our family and friends and the people that put the hard work in.

“But we still had to look forward and then turn our focus to next year.

“I've said it before, it's a limited space that you have to represent and play for your county so you have to embrace it and just relish every year you've got. That's why we're looking forward to next year.”

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