Ciaran Kilkenny is content that the summer has arrived.  On the verge of completing examinations at St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra Kilkenny is simply looking forward to Dublin’s June 4 date against Laois at Nowlan Park.

“It will be like a bit load of bricks off my back gone, and then I'll just be able to go out and enjoy my football,” Kilkenny, GAA/GPA Opel Player of the Month for April, said about concluding his third level tests.

"I'm looking forward to going back and enjoying playing, the buzz of training, and to go back to that intensity – the preparation before the Laois game. 

"Everyone is buzzing about the game. My own club are getting a bus down to the game in Nowlan Park, I think there's a festival on the same time.

“Laois gave us a great game – I was actually injured in 2014 – in the Leinster Championship. It was very competitive. So they’ll be looking forward to it. It will be a good game. Just get these exams out of the way.”

Kilkenny, a key player for Castleknock in their surprise Dublin SFC success over Oliver Plunketts/Eoghan Ruadh, isn’t concerned that everybody expects Jim Gavin’s team to defeat Laois.  “We’ve had other focus over the last three weeks. I haven’t had any opportunity to look at anything through the media with exams. I’m just buzzing with the chance to play in Nowlan Park, another ground, with the lads.

“It’s first round of Championship, sunny weather, fast ground and fast ball – I can remember sitting here four or five months ago and I’d say I was a stone and a half heavier. It was with Pat’s Drumcondra. The weather wasn’t great. It was cold, it was dull. Just a great buzz now going back playing on the summer great with a fast ball.

“It’s similar enough to exams. If I go into an exam and I don’t do any preparation, anything can happen on any given day. You can prepare as well as you want but anything can happen on the day.

“We’re really enjoying our football at the moment. We’ve a lot of trust in our team. Just try to get our preparation right. Laois have a game under their belts so they’ve a bit of form going into the game. So it’s going to be a good challenge.”

It is a venue in which Kilkenny has performed on previously.  ““Yeah, I played a Feile na nGael final when I was under-14, and then went to DJ Carey camps and that, and played a few games in there, few colleges games, minor Championship games, a serious ground, serious surface.  It’s a nice surface for football, a real kind of compact stadium, so they’ll be a great atmosphere there as well.

“It’s great to go around and play in different stadiums.  The goal I’d say of a lot of inter county players is to play in different grounds. This year we got to go to Pairc Esler in Newry, McHale Park, all these great grounds you get to go around. It’s a great buzz on the bus going up to the games. We’re really going to enjoy it, I’d say.”

Castleknock’s emergence as a vibrant club encourages Kilkenny.  “1998 we were founded and I suppose it just was a lot of people, a serious amount of volunteers put a lot of work in, whether it was lads umpiring, cutting grass, looking after teams.

“We're lucky we have mentors who have great passion about the GAA and we've put a serious effort in at underage and now we're starting to get the fruits of it now. I suppose that's what the GAA is all about, the volunteers and the lads that put the time in. It's really paying off now and we're grateful for those lads who put the work in.”

Taking the Plunketts scalp was significant.  "Yeah, it was brilliant. They're local rivals and obviously I know a few of the lads from playing with Dublin, so there was a bit of craic floating about.

“To win it with the lads, with whom I’d played all the way up, it was brilliant and great for the club and the young lads who were at the game, who went on the pitch in Parnell Park at half-time and then they went on a few days later and won the Féile. So it was a great week for the club.”