Ciarán Kilkenny: We’ve been energised, it’s great to be competing again

Ciarán Kilkenny has adopted an 'every second counts' approach to this year's rescheduled SFC as Dublin face Westmeath this Saturday in their Leinster quarter-final at O'Moore Park, Portlaoise (6.15, Sky Sports Mix).

"Every training game is so important. Every drill is so important, to fine-tune yourself and to prepare yourself to be in the best position to compete," says Ciarán.

"There’s a lot of juicy battles coming up and it’s a straight knockout. You have to be ready for every game."

Intercounty action restarted with Round 6 of the NFL - from Dublin's perspective a victory over Meath in Parnell Park, they followed that up by then defeating Galway in Salthill two weeks ago.

The Castleknock clubman featured prominently in both those games scoring 0-4 (0-1 mark) against the Royals and then 0-2 from play against Galway when he was selected as the TG Man of the Match.

Ciarán concluded the league campaign as Dublin's second highest scorer, behind Dean Rock, having tallied 0-13 (including marks against Kerry, Donegal and Meath). 

"No one really knew where they were at ‘til their first two competitive games. We have two games under our belt and it’s great to have the jersey on," says Ciarán, reflecting on the recent league encounters.

This Saturday the Dubs face familiar enough Leinster SFC opponents of recent times, a team they defeated in the 2017 provincial semi-final when Ciarán scored his first senior championship goal for Dublin.

Dean Rock, Kevin McManamon and Eoghan O'Gara were Dublin's other goal-scorers in their 4-29 to 0-10 victory.

Looking back to that game and that goal Ciarán said: "It was a great feeling. Any day when you score a goal in Croke Park is always great, but there would have been a bit of slagging coming up to the game!"

Last year Dublin made history when securing their fifth All-Ireland SFC in-a-row, since then there have been several changes to the setup including the arrival of a new manager, Dessie Farrell.

"I’ve had Dessie since under-13 (Dublin West development squad). We have a strong relationship with Dessie and he’s such a passionate guy. We’ve been energised and it’s been great to be going out there and competing against other teams.

"And it’s just really about challenging myself. As a player, you’re always looking to add a different dimension to your game and Dessie and the coaching team are really encouraging me to go at the game a lot. I’ve enjoyed doing that and trying to add different layers to my game."