Still just 22, Kildare captain Byrne revels in hurlers' great Croke Park success

Brian Byrne proudly climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand on Saturday afternoon to accept the Christy Ring Cup, and in doing so he became part of a rare group to have captained a Kildare side to a national title.

The Naas man was superb in the win over London in the final, dominating midfield alongside Niall O'Muineacháin as Kildare eased towards victory, and he was a little speechless when reflecting on the achievement shortly after full-time.

At just 22 years of age and in his third season with the senior hurlers, the talented dual player delivered a fine acceptance speech he lofted the Christy Ring Cup into the sultry Dublin sunshine.

"It's surreal," Byrne told KildareNow.

"It's an incredible feeling and I'd say all the lads feel the exact same. It's a real team effort; the lads put in a huge slog from November to now and I'm happy we have some reward at the end of it. It has tough between the league and issues that are going on outside the county, but we really have it everything.

"I'm stuck for words to be honest with you. It's surreal. To be fair, all the lads around me have huge experience... Niall[O'Muineachain], [Paul] Divilly, Mark[Moloney] and John[Doran]. They've given me huge experience in this and it has been a huge learning curve and it's just fantastic."

Kildare saved their best performance of the year for the biggest occasion, and Byrne revealed afterwards that it probably had something to do with the tailored preparation going into the final.

"It was probably a little bit different because we were a little bit lighter this week," he explained.

"We really wanted to be fresh coming into this game, so last week we did our hard stuff and this week we just sharpened up the touch and, as you said, it was in good knick. It wasn't probably the same as the last few [games] because you only had a week and you had to be ready but with the two weeks break we were able to put in the hard slog last week and this week it was just sharpness."