McGeeney: We didn’t defy ban

By Daragh O Conchúir

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

KILDARE manager Kieran McGeeney has rubbished claims his team broke the ban on collective training for inter-county teams during November and December.

A Sunday newspaper reported that the Lilywhites had participated in group training sessions during their two-week holiday to San Francisco and New York.

Last year’s Leinster finalists played an exhibition game that was sanctioned by the GAA but McGeeney rejected allegations that they broke any rules.

"As far as I was told (the report) was something to do with the trip we were on," he said. "If anyone wants to visit the bars of New York and San Francisco, they will see they were frequented quite often. Anybody that knows me knows that if I was on a training holiday, they wouldn’t be drinking."

That certainly ties in with everything that is known about the Mullaghbawn’s man approach to football. His former boss, Joe Kernan, said at yesterday’s launch of the Allianz National Football League that the captain of Armagh’s All-Ireland winning team in 2002 was always a leader, the kind he is currently looking for in Galway.

McGeeney described himself as "a stubborn sort of f**ker" who knows he still has a lot of work to do with Kildare, even though they are many pundits’ favourites to win a Leinster title and maybe achieve more.

"I definitely would not put us in the top four," he dismissed. "To be a top four team you have to get to the semi-finals and we didn’t. It’s going to be difficult and I think that next week will show that to everyone. We are playing Down who are after coming out of Division Three and will give us more than enough of it."

He is, he says, down to 22 available players due to injuries and suspensions meted out to Johnny Doyle and Morgan O’Flaherty in the wake of the battle with Laois.

O’Flaherty’s appeal will be heard this week though and McGeeney is hopeful that the player will at least have the label of ‘kicking’ removed from his name because "everyone who was there knows it was a wrong call".

Another absentee is All Star nominee Alan Smith, who is no longer part of the panel, for the short term at least. "He asked for a few weeks off. That is it. It is up to himself (if he will be back). We will have to wait and see," said McGeeney.

And meanwhile, McGeeney will continue trying to instil a confidence and belief in his charges that they can win on the big day. That though, is the classic chicken-and-egg situation. A victory over one of the top teams would be invaluable in terms of giving a team the mental edge to move forward. It’s something that evaded Kildare against Dublin and Tyrone last year in close-fought affairs.

"You see Kerry players after they win their fourth All-Ireland; what’s the first thing they say? ‘We’re looking for a fifth.’ It’s a tradition in Kerry.

"I’ve spent a bit of time in Kerry and you hear them saying to kids ‘you’ll win an All-Ireland with Kerry’, not ‘you’ll play for your club some day’. It’s a different mindset. That’s what creates that winning mentality."

He reckons Kerry is similar to south Armagh in that way, even if there is a wide gap in terms of All-Ireland titles garnered. And Kildare should be of a similar ilk he argues.

"I think Kildare should be right up there. There’s not really that much interest in other sports. The only thing really competing with the GAA in Kildare is the horse racing but you can’t get a horse to play football."

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, February 02, 2010