Marc Ó Sé predicts Ciarán Kilkenny destined for a starting role on final day

Marc Ó Sé reckons Ciarán Kilkenny will start for Dublin in Sunday’s All-Ireland SFC final at Croke Park.

Kilkenny has started just one of Dublin’s last four championship matches, their round-robin win over Sligo. He didn’t feature against Kildare and came off the bench in both the quarter-final win over Mayo and the semi-final victory over Monaghan.

He was also benched for the Division Two league final win over Derry, all of which means a player widely acknowledged to have been among the most influential and important during Dublin’s six-in-a-row era has found himself on the margins somewhat in 2023.

Dessie Farrell pointed to a shoulder issue as a contributing factor to Kilkenny’s limited game-time earlier in the season. But for the more recent knockout matches it seems there was a tactical element to the playmaking forward starting on the bench.

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However, Ó Sé sees Kilkenny’s role changing on Sunday – with the former Kerry defender expecting the Castleknock clubman to start, even if he is not named in the official team later this week.

“I think Kilkenny will start ahead of Niall Scully,” says Ó Sé. “He has had his injuries and all that, but he’s too good of a footballer to start an All-Ireland final on the bench.

“Dessie will obviously want to hold something in reserve, but I don’t think for an All-Ireland final that will be Kilkenny. I think he will hold McCaffrey.”

Kilkenny was a 48th minute sub in the quarter-final, popping over a point after his introduction for Seán Bugler, while he replaced Scully in the first half of the Monaghan match after the Templeogue man had picked up a black card.

But that is not the only personnel change Ó Sé anticipates this weekend, as he believes his An Ghaeltacht colleague Brian Ó Beaglaoích will line out for Kerry.

“With the way the game has changed, I always feel he is a fella who could do a job around the middle of the field, Brian would be totally suited to playing in the middle of the field but I think he actually might start the next day ahead of Paul Murphy.

“Whatever teams we see named and down on paper this week, I’d expect there will be changes come throw-in on Sunday.”

Ó Beaglaoích has yet to start a championship game this summer, coming off the bench in six of Kerry’s seven matches so far in the competition.

There has been a cloud of criticism hanging over the Kerry forwards since the semi-final win over Derry, casting a shadow on the ability of the supporting cast to add scoring value, instead leaving the heavy lifting largely to David Clifford and Seán O’Shea.

With news emerging that Tony Brosnan will miss out this Sunday because of a respiratory condition, it further impacts Kerry’s attacking options. However, Ó Sé does not fully buy the argument that this is an attacking unit overly reliant on Clifford.

“There’s probably a small bit too much made out of it,” he adds, speaking in his role as a Ladbrokes Ambassador.

“David Clifford is in sensational form at the moment. Obviously some players, particularly in the half-forward line, probably won’t be happy with their performances after the semi-final.

“In the past, Paul Galvin did that hard, dirty work but he’d always punch in with two or three points, so from that point of view you’d like to see something similar from the half forwards.

“But in terms of workrate, Adrian Spillane is an incredible footballer and collectively all the forwards have a role to play for the team.

“You’d probably like to see the likes of Paudie Clifford playing further up the field as opposed to dropping, but on their day the Kerry forwards can be very dangerous.”

And while stressing that he reckons this is an exceedingly difficult game to call, Ó Sé feels David Clifford can get the Kingdom over the line.

“We are very lucky to have probably the greatest player ever in David Clifford. Dublin are obviously going to have a plan for him, but if we can get enough of a supply of ball to him then I think we might just shade it.

“But other fellas are going to have to step up and chip in with two or three points, which I think they are capable of doing.”