ALL DRESSED UP AND NOWLAN TO GO
KILDARE v DUBLIN
KIERAN DUFF was in Tullamore last week for a 40th anniversary gettogether with the Offaly lads from the 1983 Leinster final when Dublin’s win over Kildare in 1989 came up.
Duff scored 1-2 in that Leinster quarter-final in Newbridge and his inquisitor drew reference to his goal, which came direct from a sideline ball.
“A great goal, you stuck it in the top corner,” he told the former Dublin star. “I don’t think I stuck it in the top corner,” Duff replied modestly. “I think the goalkeeper made a balls of it!”
That game is the last that Dublin played against Kildare in the Championship anywhere but Croke Park, with all 18 subsequent meetings at GAA HQ.
Sideline
“When I was walking up to take the sideline ball I was getting heckled and abused and all sorts of names and things like that didn’t bother me,” Duff recalls.
“Took the sideline ball and I don’t usually gesture to a crowd but, anyway, the ball ended up in the back of the net and with all the booing and jeering I was getting, I just turned around and gave two fingers to the crowd because the ball ended up in the net!
“We played anywhere down the country, Kildare, Offaly, whoever,
Meath, like they were all tight games. We were never running away with games. “Going back to the present day, there’d be a much better atmosphere having Dublin versus, we’ll say, Offaly in Tullamore or even Portlaoise when you can fit even 20,000, instead of having it in Croke Park with two games on and only 20,000, 30,000 in Croker. There’s no atmosphere whatsoever.”
Dublin haven’t lost to Leinster opposition outside Croke Park since the 1981 Leinster semifinal against Laois, a game that Duff missed through injury after damaging his back in the previous round against Wicklow. “There’s a big difference to playing in Croke Park nowadays than there was back in our day because the pitch is way bigger nowadays.
“The distances from sidelines and the pitch and all of that is totally different so it’s about getting your bearings and understanding the size of the pitch and even taking frees and that’s where Dublin have an advantage over the last number of years. “When they started playing the League games there, they could blood in players through the National League and give them the experience of playing in Croker. This is where it stood to Dublin over the years.
“We just accepted that you played in Croke Park for the Leinster final and that was it.” left) (below,
Today’s is a designated home tie for the Lilywhites but with no ground in the county capable of holding it, it goes to UPMC Nowlan Park in Kilkenny.
Irony
The irony isn’t lost on Duff in light of Glenn Ryan’s comments about the advantage that Dublin have with Croke Park after their two-point victory over his side in the Leinster semi-final on April 30.
“Glenn Ryan came out with the statement he came out with after the game about Dublin and Croke Park and then a couple of weeks later, they get a home draw against Dublin and they haven’t got a pitch to play it,” he smiled.
But while he echoes many of Ryan’s views about the “familiarity” that Dublin have with Croke Park and the associated advantages, Duff felt it was the wrong avenue for the Kildare boss to go down that evening.
“I was disappointed to hear him saying it but you can understand the emotions of it and at the end of a game you’re interviewed as to the way the game went, did a few decisions go against Kildare here or there, whether it be stuff on the sideline or whatever happened.
“But the one thing I would say is I think it was borne out of frustration because it wasn’t Croke Park that won that game for Dublin.
“Kildare were probably the