Killian Young retired from inter-county action following the 2019 All Ireland Senior Football Championship.
By Cian O’Connell
On October 1 last year Killian Young announced his retirement from inter-county football with Kerry.
In 2006 the Renard clubman made his debut for the green and gold team accumulating four All Ireland, nine Munster, and two Allianz Football League medals.
Delighted to have been involved in so many Kerry triumphs, Young acknowledges it was a tough decision to walk away from the game at that level.
“It was a major part of my life, it was a walk of life where I didn't know any better,” Young told GAA.ie. “Effectively from my career moving out of minor straight into senior, it evolved from there.
“It was part of my life in the sense that I was in that type of bubble, I was probably protected in that bubble, and I enjoyed it. I got so much out of the game, it was incredible. The memories are phenomenal from it and I certainly will miss it.”
The Covid 19 pandemic has halted both club and county action since March so the transition has been different to what Young envisaged.
“I didn't realise how lucky we were, I was only talking to Paul Galvin recently, he was basically aren't you one of the lucky ones,” Young says. “It is very hard as he said in year one when you are watching the boys going out playing football, things like that.
David Moran and Killian Young following the 2018 Munster SFC Final at Páirc Uí Chaoímh.
“Now we are being presented with this Covid 19 so it is strange, strange times. Effectively Jim Gavin and myself timed it well,” he laughs.
Though Kerry have lost a string of established and decorated players in recent campaigns due to retirement, Young is convinced that Peter Keane’s panel will cope adequately.
“That is for sure, experience comes from winning All Irelands,” Young replies when asked about the departure of so many key performers from the stage.
“That is the foundation down in Kerry and that is what the team will be looked at now, where they can bounce back. The future is certainly there, but it is about getting over the line, winning that first one, to win more with it. Now it is about getting over the line.
“Effectively for every other team in Ireland it is to stop Dublin. That is the way it is being spoken about now after the way they won five in a row.
“It is the first thing on everyone's lips, it is a big challenge, but I think Kerry do have the talent. Just from seeing it last year I certainly feel it is there.
"It is a matter of things clicking on a day, but they certainly have that ability.”
