Kilkenny captain Paddy Deegan has claimed that it's nice winning Leinster titles, but the goal now is to win an All-Ireland title once again, like old Kilkenny teams did on a consistent basis
The Cats were crowned Leinster senior hurling champions for the fifth year in a row last month. They defeated Dublin by 3-28 to 1-18 in a one-sided affair at Croke Park. Their attention now turns to their clash with Clare in the All-Ireland senior hurling semi-final.
The Kilkenny of old were well known for winning Leinster titles as well as All-Ireland crowns under Brian Cody, but that has dried up since his retirement. Kilkenny is the most successful county in All-Ireland history, with 36 Liam MacCarthy Cups to their name. However, their search for a 37th All-Ireland title has reached a ninth year.
After back-to-back defeats to Limerick in 2022 and 2023, the quest for another Liam MacCarthy is the main objective for Deegan and the rest of the Kilkenny panel.
When asked about not being able to win All-Ireland crowns after Leinster provincial wins, unlike their predecessors, the 28-year-old said, “I don’t think it’s been thrown at us that way, but we know as a group that that is our goal—to win an All-Ireland.
“It’s been nine years since we won one, so it’s very much there, and a lot of the lads on the panel at the moment—there’s TJ [Reid], Cillian Buckley, Conor Fogarty, Walter Walsh, and Scruff [Eoin Murphy]—are probably the only lads with an All-Ireland medal at the senior level, so, look, it’s something that we’re striving to achieve.”
Under former manager Cody, Kilkenny won eleven All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship titles, a record-equalling four-in-a-row between 2006 and 2009, seventeen Leinster Senior Hurling Championship titles in twenty-three seasons, ten National Hurling League titles (among which were five league championship doubles), and seven Walsh Cups.
Fans of GAA may never see the likes of Brian Cody's Kilkenny team again. However, the closest imitation to them in the modern era is Limerick, and a win this year will separate the Treaty from Kilkenny and every other hurling team past and present.
Deegan knows that many will judge the current Kilkenny team and hold them to the same standard as previous panels. While he recognises that winning the All-Ireland every year is impossible, he also acknowledges that the feat of consistently winning five Leinster titles in a row is something to be proud of.
“I suppose it’s always going to happen when you’re going from what that Kilkenny team achieved 10/15 years ago. When you’re coming from that, obviously you can’t expect to win the All-Ireland every single year, year-in, year-out, etc. That’s obviously a goal, but for the five Leinsters in a row, the consistency to be able to do that and do it over the five years is just incredible, yeah.”
Kilkenny vs. Clare will take place at Croke Park at 3 PM this coming Saturday and can be seen live on RTÉ or the BBC.
