Kenny starting to make midfield his home in black and amber

A new season beckons for the Kilkenny hurlers with only two and a half weeks until the Cats face into Allianz League action.

One player who will be looking to build on a fine 2024 is Cian Kenny after he made midfield his home during last year’s senior championship campaign.

The James Stephens clubman excelled throughout the whole season and he admits that he’s worked on his game a lot.

“ I felt like I let myself down a bit in 2023 as I didn’t feel like I performed like I could have,” was his honest assessment.

“Last year I said to myself that I was really going to push myself hard. I’m delighted how the year went personally, but I still think that there is way more in me too.

“It’s all about building on it now over the next few years and trying to become a better player for the team and for Kilkenny overall.”

The 23-year-old even ended up as the third highest scorer for the Noresiders in their seven championship encounters and he feels more involved in the action around the middle of the park as his game continues to go up a few levels.

“I’ll go wherever I’m needed but I do like it in midfield as I feel in the forwards you can be a bit lost when you aren’t in the game or if the ball is not coming into your or it’s not sticking,” he added.

“In midfield, you can kind of go between the backs and the forwards and I find myself more as a defensive midfielder in helping out lads at the back. It’s a secure position for me as I kind of know what I’m doing a little more.

“I’m not the biggest of lads and I know that myself, but I wouldn’t pull out of anything. I’ve got to a stage where I have a platform to build from.

“I’m working closely with our Strength and Conditioning coach John Murphy and I’m trying to get to that next level and become even stronger on the pitch than I was last year.

“The platform is there for me now to push on like I always wanted to do and I feel like I’m getting there.”

While Kenny and his team-mates are gearing up for a busy few weeks on the field, the All-Ireland semi-final loss to Clare has been a tough one to get over.

“I’m delighted to be back in training as you kind of want to get last year out of the way,” he said. “The way it ended, with such fine margins in the All-Ireland semi-final - at Christmas you had time to reflect on it as, after Kilkenny, you were straight back into it with the club and you don’t have time to be fixated on different things.

“It’s good been back in with the lads too as there does be a great buzz and we wanted to get going as soon as we could to try and right the wrongs of the 2024 season.”

While 2025 is a new year, the dynamic midfielder knows the Cats can still take lessons from the Clare defeat to bring into the new season.

“You’d review the Clare championship loss by yourself and that will obviously be the game that we will look back on the most as we felt like we let that slip a lot,” he said.

“It’ll be a good game for us to reflect on and give that extra few minutes as we have a very good analysis team with us. I’m sure they will be working hard on breaking down all our games, but especially that one as we have a lot of learning from that game,” he continued.

The league is only around the corner and even has an earlier January start this time around with a restructured Division One.

For the Special Needs Assistant in Loreto Secondary School, it provides an opportunity to take on some of the best teams in the country at such an early part of the year.

“The new league format will give us a lot of competitive games starting away to Clare the first day out and I wouldn’t want to play anyone but them.

“It will be interesting to see what impact losing the Walsh Cup will have, but we’ll still be playing games and doing our own training. I’m looking forward to playing the best teams in the country during the league so we’ll be licking our lips at the opportunity.

“The new structure should bring a bit of excitement and we know we’ll have serious crowds at our home games in UPMC Nowlan Park with Limerick, Tipperary and Galway coming to town, they are three big counties that will bring plenty of support too so it should stand to us ahead of the Championship. We’ll have a better idea of where we stand at the end of it so it’s something to look forward to.”

Behind it all though, there is one major incentive that is driving Kenny and that is his desire to get his hands on a Celtic Cross and win an All-Ireland senior title with Kilkenny.

He’s lost two finals at senior level as well as being on a minor team that fell short against Galway on the big day. With only TJ Reid, Eoin Murphy and Richie Reid left in the squad with All-Ireland senior success, he’s hoping this year can bring a different conclusion.

“Winning the All-Ireland is a bit of an obsession for me,” he said. “You hear the whole time that Kilkenny have a drought coming up to 10 years while, when I was growing up, I was looking at the teams that won numerous All-Irelands, so it’s a thing with our group that we are willing to do anything to try and win Liam MacCarthy so it’ll be an exciting year and I can’t wait for it.”

The latter half of 2024 also proved to be a disappointing one for Kenny after his club James Stephens were relegated from the senior grade in Kilkenny for the first time ever.

With new management at the helm and a talented young crop that have won the last two minor Roinn A titles, he’s hopeful of a bright future for the Larchfield based outfit.

“The club’s season still has a sour feeling as you are never going to accept getting relegated and any club would be the same,” he said.

“The management team of Eoin Larkin, Jackie Tyrrell and Matthew Ruth have all done it with both the Village and Kilkenny and we hope we can do special things with them, but we also know how difficult the intermediate grade is going to be at the same time.

“All the clubs are trying to do the same thing as us and get up to senior level. Hopefully we can do that as fast as possible - we can’t wait to rock and roll again.”