St Brigid’s have been ‘the benchmark for us’ - Declan Kenny

By Kevin Egan

His dominant displays for his club in 2024 marked Declan Kenny out as a player to watch on the intercounty stage in 2025. His youth and his slight frame meant that a lack of game time in cold and damp conditions during the first half of the league was understandable.

But in the new world of Gaelic football in 2025, a player that could operate in any position in the middle eight, who was a scoring threat from outside the arc, who was a huge threat from quick tap-and-go frees and who was able to outfield much taller opponents due to his prodigious leap, looked like the absolutely ideal profile of a player who would thrive under the new rules.

Yet it never happened. The first half of the league saw Roscommon thrive, in the second half they stumbled and fumbled their way across the finish line, and still Kenny didn’t get the chance to feature.

League became championship and without ever slipping into full-blown crisis, Roscommon’s form remained middling. Still, Kenny only got five minutes against Cork, a miniscule contribution in comparison with what most supporters would have felt that his potential warranted.

Needless to say then, the TUS Midlands student came away with mixed feelings from his year in with the county.

“At the time, there was probably a lot of frustration,” he admits.

“When lads start playing well, and you’re not playing so well, it’s hard to get into the team. Your form picks up when you get back into the swing of it and when you’re in there, you’re expecting to play as much as you can for Roscommon, I wasn’t there to make up numbers.

“But when you’re not playing every week, you still have to try and find a way to improve and get better. That’s what I did. I went off on my own little journey, did a lot of work on my own. At least, by the end of the season, I had played a few minutes against Cork.”

He still sees the positives however, and feels that Pádraig Pearses are now seeing the benefit on the pitch.

“It’s an environment you have to be exposed to in order to grow as a footballer,” is his take on the situation.

“Obviously, I didn’t play as much as I would have liked or hoped. But it has been a learning curve about resilience and all that comes with that.

“You learn more from not playing. You focus on parts of your game that will benefit me in the long run. If you’re coming in and starting straight away as a 20-year-old, it’s a long career. You have to serve your apprenticeship, and gain trust within the team. There are lads there ten or 15 years, you have to build a bit of trust with them.”

At a time when there has been a touch of ‘changing the guard’ in Woodmount, Kenny knows that as a county panelist, he can no longer be perceived, or act, like one of the next generation, coming up through the ranks.

“When you’ve been away with the county for so long, you do have to bring something back to the group. Maybe there’s an expectation but you don’t see it like that. It’s a privilege. It’s important not to see is as pressure or a negative thing. You have to embrace it and find the good in it.

“Being with David Murray, Niall Daly, Ronan Daly, travelling with them to training, you’re going to learn plenty from those lads. All these young lads like Jack Tumulty and Conor Ryan, there are young lads stepping up in every game. Maybe it would have been left to Niall or Conor Daly in the past to carry the can, but you could name anyone in the starting 15 now who would be capable of producing a man of the match display, and if I didn’t consider myself capable of that too, then I don’t belong there,” he says.

It's been a rocky road to Sunday’s final (throw-in 2pm at King & Moffatt Dr Hyde Park) with one defeat and two victories that required coming back from more than two goals down, and playing for 80 minutes. Having got here, however, he feels they’re ready for what will be a huge test.

“I think we’re in a good position now. We’ve come through a lot — the Boyle game and extra-time against Oran as well. We’re definitely battled-hardened at this stage. We came from seven points down against Boyle. No one expected that," he said.

“Brigid’s are viewed as the big team in Roscommon, having been in a recent All-Ireland club final. They’ve been the benchmark for us over the last few years. To beat them in a final would be a great thing for us as a team,” Kenny added.