Kildare can get back on course, insists Sweeney
4 Kildare have lost four Leinster finals since 2000, three to Dublin
RONAN SWEENEY believes the next fortnight is critical in the development of this Kildare team as the players need to show they can bounce back from Sunday’s Leinster final defeat.
The Lilywhites were far from disgraced against Dublin and their nine-point defeat was the closest any Leinster side has came to Jim Gavin’s men in four years. However, it was still a heavy reversal and the Kildare selector says they have to absorb lessons from it.
‘We still lost by nine points, which is a bit of a beating in fairness,’ he said. ‘We are getting there. We are making progress. There’s no doubt about that, if you think about where we started the year to where we are now.
‘We had a defeat here but I know we are making progress. The next two weeks are going to be huge for this team in terms of how we react to this loss. Whether we say we had a decent year or whether we go on and try to get to an All-Ireland quarter-final. Ultimately, that’s the goal.’
The Lilywhites will face Armagh in Croke Park on Saturday week in the Round 4B qualifier, which is certain to be an occasion laced with emotion as it will mean Kieran McGeeney coming up against his old side, including Sweeney (right) who was one of the Orchard manager’s most trusted lieutenants on the field during his time as Kildare boss.
‘It was always going to be tricky at this stage of the Championship. Generally, the last 12 are the best 12 teams in the country. It will be one hell of a battle but we will just worry about ourselves at the moment, try to get the lads’ heads up and try to be positive about the whole thing.’ And there were plenty of positive elements in Kildare’s display last Sunday. Kevin Feely confirmed his status as one of the best midfielders in the game with an exhibition of fielding. Paddy Brophy’s goal underlined his class and additional games will bring on the former AFL player. Kildare’s spirit was epitomised by their skipper Eoin Doyle who played despite a thumb injury, which may now rule him out of the Armagh clash. ‘We will see what happens over the next couple of days and how his hand reacted to the game. Hopefully, he will be available,’ Sweeney said of Doyle before defending the decision to play him. ‘I thought he did well, in fairness. He’s the captain of our team and he was insisting on playing so we backed him 100 per cent. We felt we needed him.’ Feely’s availability for the Armagh game is also in doubt, as he picked up his third black card of the season against Dublin, which means a onematch suspension although Kildare are looking at avenues to appeal one of those three cautions with the other two having come during the League.
‘Kevin is an outstanding midfielder. He is a real leader in the team and when your leaders start intercepting balls or catching balls in the air, it does give a bit of a lift to the group.’
There are other lessons for Kildare to take from last Sunday. The sheer pace at which Dublin play the game was something that this Lilywhite side had yet to experience, given they hadn’t played a Division 1 side until the Leinster final.
‘Dublin are ruthless,’ Sweeney pointed out. ‘They had only one wide in the second half. That’s the difference. We are getting there and there are plenty of positives to take out of the game. But ultimately, I thought there was a real difference between a team just going into Division 1 and one that has been at the top of their game for the past seven or eight years.
‘The only way to play at that pace which Dublin do is to keep playing at this level and we need to be playing in this place, Croke Park, as often as possible to be able to get used to that intensity and hopefully beat it eventually.’