Adrian Mullen has his eye on the Leinster prize

​By Paul Keane

A pre-Leinster SHC final chat with Kilkenny's Adrian Mullen and way too long spent talking about injuries, rehab work and time spent away from the game.

Unfortunately for the Kilkenny forward - or defender perhaps, though we'll get to that one later - it's been a recurring theme in recent seasons.

Mullen missed all of this season's Allianz League campaign due to a groin injury suffered early in the year. When he did get back, nailing down a starting place in their Championship opener against Galway, the Shamrocks man twisted his ankle, costing him another game.

Two years ago, he missed the 2023 Leinster final with a broken thumb. Earlier that year, a hamstring injury kept him out of the AIB All-Ireland club final. A cruciate tear in 2020 cost him another significant chunk of time away from the pitch.

Thankfully, he is fully fit and firing now. He's started the last two games for Kilkenny and, all going to plan, will line out again on Sunday against Galway again in the Leinster SHC final at Croke Park.

"It's probably just a variety of different things," said Mullen of his injury misfortune. "I suppose with the workload of pre-season at the time, you'd be doing well to come out of it injury-free. I was just unfortunate at the time to pick up kind of a groin injury, or a groin issue. But it's all good now and I'm fit and ready to go.

"I feel good. Training has been tough and it's been hard over the last couple of weeks and months. Once you put in that work and put in that foundation, it definitely stands to you. I feel good coming into the latter part of the Championship."

That's great news for Kilkenny supporters because when Mullen is at his best, he's a potent weapon.

The thing is, where do you play him?

He is best known as both a creator and a finisher, in the forwards. But when the Cats have needed him at midfield, he's played there too.

Derek Lyng then threw Mullen a curveball by naming him at centre-back in their Round 5 Leinster SHC encounter with Wexford. Kilkenny had already qualified for the final at that stage, hence the opportunity for experimentation.

"I did a stint at centre-back for underage as well," said Mullen. "To be honest, it was just a game where, given the circumstances of the round-robin, we were already through, so it was probably a game to give lads a bit of game time and get minutes into the legs and stuff like that. I suppose that's just what you saw there."

Would he fancy the opportunity to play there again this weekend?

"I suppose I'll play anywhere I'm told to play," shrugged Mullen. "If you're told to play centre-back, you obviously just have to adapt to that. If you're in closer to goal, you have to be a threat up there. Really, the way the game has gone, you have to be able to play anywhere. If you're named half-forward, you could end up in midfield or even in the half-back line or in the full-forward line. You just have to be versatile."

Mullen is reasonably satisfied with Kilkenny's form so far in the Championship.

"I suppose we're not going too bad," he said. "We had a decent round-robin. Before that, the league was up and down. We've done what we had to do in the Leinster round-robin, we won a few games, we got into the Leinster final. You can't ask for much more than that."

Kilkenny took care of Galway with relative ease when the sides met in Round 1 of the Leinster SHC. If they can repeat the feat at Croke Park, and secure a sixth consecutive provincial title success, they'll be rewarded with a ticket to the All-Ireland semi-finals in early July.

"It's definitely a bonus," said Mullen of potentially advancing directly to the Championship's last four. "I suppose the most important thing now is that you bring your best game on Sunday, that you're able to compete, and hopefully get a result from bringing your best game. The most important thing is to show up on Sunday ready to go and whatever unfolds after that, you'll take that in your stride."