Ciaran Kilkenny says it was always his intention to retire from Dublin duty at the end of this season.

The long-serving Castleknock clubman won eight All-Ireland SFC titles, 13 Leinster Championships, five Allianz Football League medals and six All-Stars in a glittering career.

"I had kind of made the decision with my family at the start of the season that this would be my last year playing for Dublin," he explained to RTÉ at a media event ahead of the Aer Lingus College Football Classic at the Aviva Stadium on August 29.

"There came a lot of emotion with each game and especially where it got to the stage of knockout games, where each match could potentially be my last game playing for Dublin.

"I was trying to soak in everything as much as possible: the preparation and the lead-in to the games, along with the moments on the bus with my team-mates heading into the stadium. The fact that each of those games was potentially my last I wanted to give as best as I could - in that it could be potentially my last time ever putting a blue jersey on."

Reflecting on his final game for the Dubs against Kerry in last month’s All-Ireland SFC semi-final, Kilkenny added: "There is nothing like Dublin v Kerry in Croke Park and the parade beforehand was an unbelievable spectacle.

"I thought we performed well. But the best team won on the day if I'm being honest. You will always be looking back on games and analysing games. If our conversion rate was a little bit better, we did create a lot of opportunities but didn't execute the way we would have liked to.

"I gave it my all and everybody else on the team gave it their all.”

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