KIERAN JOYCE hopes his membership of the last Kilkenny team to claim the Liam MacCarthy Cup finally expires this summer.
However, the four-time All-Ireland SHC winner fears that the Cats are still too dependent on ‘the old guard’ in their ongoing quest to end a wait that has now entered its tenth year.
With elder statesmen like Cillian Buckley, Conor Fogarty and Walter Walsh stepping away over the winter, the hope on Noreside is that fresh blood will emerge to fill the vacancies.
Current senior boss Derek Lyng guided Kilkenny to an All-Ireland Under-20 title in 2022.
There was also a large black and amber contingent on the DCU side that contested last weekend’s Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup final, only to lose to a formidable UL outfit.
Having been beaten in back-to-back All-Ireland senior finals by Limerick, Kilkenny’s most recent attempt to return to the summit ended with a semi-final loss to eventual champions Clare.
Eoin Murphy and Reid brothers TJ and Richie are now the Cats’ last remaining All-Ireland medallists.
Experienced campaigners such as Huw Lawlor, Paddy Deegan, John Donnelly and Mossy Keoghan are at the peak of their powers, while there are many years still ahead of the likes of Eoin Cody, Cian Kenny, Adrian Mullen and captain David Blanchfield.
Still, another near miss last summer suggested that new additions may be needed if Lyng’s side are to get over the line.
Indeed, should they fail to do so this year, Kilkenny’s drought will become their longest since they bagged their first All-Ireland in 1904.
With Joyce at the heart of the defence, Brian Cody’s charges landed hurling’s biggest prize for the 11th time in 16 seasons by overcoming Galway in 2015.
He said: “I was involved at that stage and from my point of view, leading into that and leading into my career with Kilkenny, we’re probably not as prevalent at underage in terms of minor and Under-20 titles.
“I know we won one a couple of years ago with Derek but that was probably a surprise for a lot of people when Kilkenny won that year. The consistency maybe in terms of churning out players that we used to have is not there.
“The one shining light you’d see with the DCU team this year, I think there were about 12 or 13 Kilkenny guys involved.
“To be making Fitzgibbon finals will be good for those guys and hopefully a stepping stone for a lot of them.
“But from a Kilkenny point of view, we haven’t been as competitive. When I came into the Kilkenny panel, I had won two All-Ireland Under-21s at that stage. I lost a minor All-Ireland but I had faced that.
“A lot of the players coming in, are they making those sorts of stages regularly at that level to make the next step in?
“They’re not and that’s probably reflected then when we’re not churning out the same players and probably relying on the old guard an awful lot more than we should, compared to other counties.”
With Kilkenny losing four All-Ireland finals since their last triumph a decade ago, the natives are sure to be growing restless.
But Joyce, who retired after the 2017 season, insisted: “I don’t think the pressure comes from the public in that sense but I think they do feel it.
“There are players there, I’m thinking of the Huw Lawlors and the Paddy Deegans, a lot of those guys have lost three or four All-Irelands now. To keep coming back to the well every year is hard.
“I know it was completely different from our aspect. When I was involved, we were winning a few. I still lost one or two as well and they’re the ones that hurt the most.
“But there’s probably a grá there every single year, saying, ‘I want to get back, I want to right that wrong.
“I just want to close out my career or my playing time with Kilkenny with an All-Ireland’ – not to be a team or a player with the county for seven or eight years and have lost three or four All-Irelands and not be able to get to that final spot.”
While Championship honours at national level have eluded Kilkenny, the winning of a fifth consecutive Leinster title last year speaks to their supremacy on the provincial front.
SOLE FOCUS
Joyce said: “There is positivity. And it’s not being harsh, but in Kilkenny, it’s always been the case – and it’s not being arrogant or things like that – but you’re measured by winning All-Irelands.
“We don’t have the competition of trying to juggle football. That’s our sole sport that we try to work towards and focus on.
“I know from the players’ point of view, obviously they’ve been competitive and we’ve lost to a phenomenal team in the last couple of years.
“But from our point of view and for a lot of these players, they’ve given six or seven years. They probably just want to make the final step.”
The centre-back position has been something of a conundrum for Lyng, who is now in his third season at the helm since succeeding Cody.
Deegan and Richie Reid have played there most often, while Blanchfield and Mikey Carey have also filled the role in the early rounds of this year’s National League.
Joyce, who was Kilkenny’s No. 6 in the 2015 All-Ireland final, said: “You’d like to see him giving a David Blanchfield or a Mikey Carey, whoever he’s going to decide, just give him the full campaign and see how they go because I know myself.
“The more games you play in that position, the more confidence you get in terms of how you play around players and that.
“Chopping and changing probably doesn’t give you the consistency but it’s kind of a balancing act in terms of trying to get as many guys looked at and trying to build your squad.”
The Division 1 campaign resumes for Kilkenny on Sunday at UPMC Nowlan Park against a Limerick side whose quest for an unprecedented fifth All-Ireland crown was foiled by last July’s semi-final loss to Cork.
Joyce added: “I know everyone will say Limerick will come back with a vengeance.
“But Clare winning it probably made everybody feel that the objective of winning an All-Ireland is a little bit easier because the beast in Limerick has been stopped and the five-in-a-row has been stopped.”
*KIERAN JOYCE was speaking in his role as an ambassador for the Electric Ireland Higher Education Championships.
