Has McGeeney taken Kildare as far as he can?

The story goes that five years ago, on this very soil, Kieran McGeeney and his then assistant Paul Grimley trudged to the dugout before their first championship game against Wicklow.

Number two turned to number one and asked if he thought they could beat a team that were not only sleeping rough in Division 4, but had never won a game in Croke Park. “No,” came the response. He didn’t think his Kildare players had bought into his seven-man defence, his diagonal balls into corner-forwards and, most importantly, his mindset. It was as honest as it was accurate.

But that’s what year one was all about under McGeeney. Laying foundations on a piece of land that had potential for decent development.