It seems silly to recall it now, but there was a time, back in the autumn of 2012, when some within Dublin GAA circles were almost happy to see Ciarán Kilkenny head to Australia. These would have been hurling people, cranky at the losses they’d already sustained over the years and reasoning that if they were going to lose another one, better to see him head to the other side of the world than to throw his lot in with the Dublin footballers.Kilkenny was just 19 at the time. Considering everything that followed, maybe the most impressive thing about him is that he called his shot at such a very young age. “I was raised to win All-Irelands,” he famously said, at a time when Dublin had lifted Sam Maguire just once in the previous 18 years. He didn’t do it out of bravado or bluster either. He essentially saw it as a vocation and was happy enough to say so out loud.[ Dublin’s Ciarán Kilkenny announces his retirement from intercounty footballOpens in new window ]This was when he was still only a year out of minor, was being pulled and dragged in umpteen different directions by different sports and teams and colleges. Dublin had a coming team but they were young and unproven and Jim Gavin was still not much more than a former All-Ireland winner who’d done a bit with the 21s. Ciarán Kilkenny had no real business making such a claim.And then he went and did it.Eight All-Irelands. Twelve Leinster titles, more than all but two of the other competing counties have in their history. Six All Stars – Stephen Cluxton is the only Dub with more. Three times shortlisted for Footballer of the Year, the most of any player who hasn’t actually won it.A six-time All Star, Kilkenny was nominated for Footballer of the Year on three occasions. Photograph: James Lawlor/Inpho There’s a much quoted line from Vicente Del Bosque that might explain, at least in part, why Kilkenny never actually won the overall award. Talking about Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets, Del Bosque is reputed to have said: “You watch the game, you don’t see Busquets. You watch Busquets, you see the whole game.”Throughout the years when the Jim Gavin Dubs were laying waste to all-comers, that was Ciarán Kilkenny. He came through the ranks as a brilliant full-forward, plundering goals and points at will, named Cadbury Hero Of The Future in 2012. That annual award goes to the country’s most promising under-21 footballer and he beat out a serious class to take it that year – Jack McCaffrey, Darren McCurry, Brian Hurley and Donie Smith were all on the list behind him.But over time, his role with Dublin changed from inside forward to one with a much broader responsibility. As the game evolved into an entirely possession-based endeavour, Kilkenny’s first job was to knit the Dublin attack together. He was expected to carry his weight in scores too, but first and foremost, he kept everything ticking. A one-man rhythm section, in charge of the tempo, dictating the beat and the volume.It was a role that suited not just his football IQ, but his unique athleticism. Aerobically, he was consistently the leader of that Dublin pack. Ask Brian Fenton, ask James McCarthy, ask any of them – when they were judging where their fitness was during the winter slogs, Kilkenny was the measuring stick. If they could hang with him, they could hang with anyone.Kilkenny is alongside Dean Rock on Dublin's all-time top-scorers list. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho He was the first of the fabled 1993s to break through, making his debut under Pat Gilroy in 2012 while still an 18-year-old. He played 87 times in the championship and ended up with a tally of 7-158 to his name. The only Dubs ahead of him on the scoring charts are Jimmy Keaveney, Barney and Dean Rock, Cormac Costello, Con O’Callaghan and Bernard Brogan, all of whom have been the Dublin freetaker at one stage or another. That was never Kilkenny’s gig.Instead, they expected him to be good at everything. His ability and fitness had such a high floor that the Dublin management constantly pushed him to places other players weren’t asked to go. They wanted him to conduct the orchestra, chip in with scores, be a kick-out option and be aggressive in defence. The night he was named Man of the Match in the 2019 final against Kerry, he put it down to a covering block he’d made on Jack Sherwood, the kind of thing he’d been challenged on constantly within the Dublin set-up.As the years passed and so many of the other Dublin stars found other things to do with their lives, Kilkenny was a constant. It speaks volumes that he was Dublin’s only All Star in both 2021 and 2022 as Dessie Farrell’s side came down the other side of the mountain. He was still worthy of a nomination last year, even as Dublin lost their Leinster title for the first time in his career and went out in the All-Ireland quarter-final.The years roll over. Kilkenny’s retirement means that no players from the breakthrough 2013 Dublin team are still on the go. The greatest team of their generation and one to rival the best offered up by any of the decades that went before. Ciarán Kilkenny was at the heart of it all, a crucial component in everything they did and everything they achieved.He said he was raised to win All-Irelands. He made good on his promise.