Blue leader Ciaran is cut from same cloth as Keano

KILKENNY'S 'TURIN 99' DISPLAY REIGNITED SEASON

- Roy CURTIS

AS CIARAN Kilkenny chose an airless Salthill sweatbox to aim a defiant mid-May fist at the growing consensus about terminal Dublin decline, an eternal Alex Ferguson hymn of praise came rolling across the years.

Even as the Sky Blue veteran - a keepsake from a lost football age - delivered a titanic exhibition of leadership and combative will to take down Galway, the Old Trafford laird's spinetingling 1999 Turin tribute to Roy Keane invaded the Atlantic air.

"I did not think I could have a higher opinion of any footballer than I already had of the Irishman, but he rose even further in my estimation at the Stadio Delle Alpi.

"It was the most emphatic display of selflessness I have seen on a football field. Pounding over every blade of grass, competing as he if would rather die of exhaustion than lose, he inspired all around him.

"I felt it was an honour to be associated with such a player."

Few among the thousands toasting on the Pearse Stadium terraces a fortnight ago would have been inclined to protest if that same battle-ribbon Fergie commissioned for his Irish captain was now pinned to Kilkenny's perspiration-soaked lapel.

Hill 16 on tour had witnessed a career masterwork from a giant just weeks from his 32nd birthday - Dublin's ginger Modric rolling back the years, ransacking his memory to again announce himself as Sky Blue choreographer-in-chief.

"His greatest 70 minutes leadership wise," was the unequivocal verdict of Diarmuid Connolly, the player Kilkenny replaced when making his Dublin debut as a substitute in a 2012 Leinster Championship clash with Laois.