Another week rolls around and it’s time to name the We Are Dublin, Dublin Player Of The Weekend.
I know we say this every week but for our new followers who don’t know what this is, it’s a weekly award we give to the the player we believe was the standout out Dublin player from the previous weekends inter county action.
Last weekend there was plenty of action in Camogie and Men’s Senior Football.
But our winner this week comes from last Saturday’s All Ireland SFC quarter final between Dublin and Donegal.
There were plenty of candidates up for consideration for this weeks award. Kevin McManamon was excellent throughout and his strong running punched big holes in the Donegal blanket defence causing mayhem and Kevin scored three excellent points on the day.
Brian Fenton ruled midfield in another top notch display, Jonny Cooper and Philly McMahon snuff out the scoring threat from Donegal with both players also getting forward to score a point apiece.
Young rising star David Byrne came of age on Saturday as he marked Patrick McBrearty out of the game. John Small had his best game in blue to date and counter attacked with pace,power and menace. And of course Paul Mannions contribution of 1-01 when introduced was magnificent and his wonder goal is surely one of the goals of the season.
But the winner just couldn’t be anyone but one man and that of course is Ciarán Kilkenny.
The Castleknock star was the ultimate puppet master as he pulled the strings all day long from his unfamiliar halfback role in the absence of James McCarthy. Kilkenny knocked over a sublime point from distance in the first half to make a mockery of the blanket defence from Donegal.
He got on to over 50 possessions of the ball, dictated the tempo of the game, instructed teammates where he wanted them to go as he probe for openings and wasn’t afraid to play the ball laterally or backwards in an effort to draw Donegal out of their defensive shape.
So the deserving winner of this weeks We Are Dublin, Dublin Player Of The Weekend is CIARÁN KILKENNY.
