New test for Lilies’ revival
After early season success in the O’Byrne Cup, Kildare have gone on to beat three of the last four All-Ireland winners in the league and now have a chance to turn over the fourth member of that gilded club this weekend.
Who would have thought that so many of the players who floundered in Cork’s wake last August in Croke Park would be back with such a spring in their step so soon? They’ve come a long way, indeed.
Much has been made of the injection of youth given to the Kildare panel after their winter of discontent during which they lost their sponsor of almost 20 unbroken years, Tegral, and saw the break-up of a trusted backroom team with the departures of Aidan O’Rourke to Louth and Niall Carew to Waterford.
There is no doubt that Niall Kelly, Daniel Flynn, Paddy Brophy and company have given fresh impetus to what appeared an ailing franchise last August, but the most compelling argument for a new Kildare comes not from the change in personnel but from the change in pace and intensity brought about by their promotion from Division 2 nearly a year ago.
For the first time since Kieran McGeeney’s debut season, his charges are going to get at least seven games in Division 1, where the margin for error is tighter and harsh lessons are learned from even the smallest mistakes.
Take last weekend’s game against Kerry, for example.
When Emmet Bolton pointed in the 50th minute to put Kildare 2-7 to 0-7 ahead, Kildare players probably assumed that they could keep possession, pick off the odd score on the counter attack and close the deal with minimum fuss, just as they did against Derry, Louth and Westmeath in March 2012.
It didn’t happen last weekend because, as much as Kerry are struggling with their game at the moment, they are still one of the most enduring teams in the division and have learned many hard lessons on the road.
Kildare will benefit enormously from their error in allowing an experienced team stay in the game instead of killing them off when the chance presented itself.
These are the types of valuable lessons they would have missed out on had Johnny Doyle failed to convert the penalty that ensured their promotion against Galway last year.
It was perhaps no coincidence last weekend that it was the experienced Doyle who caught the next kick-out after Peter Crowley had brought Kerry to within one point of Kildare with 69 in order to slow down the Kerry attack. The ensuing yellow card issued to O’Neill helped Kildare regroup and win possession back from Johnny Buckley’s free kick.
While the depressing fact is that such tactical fouling is rampant across all four divisions, its rewards are more pronounced at the very top level and Kildare would never have learnt such a lesson in the four seasons between 2009-2012 they spent in Division 2.
Tomorrow’s game in Croke Park represents a further pushing out of the frontiers for Kildare.
For all his energy and enthusiasm in the first half against Kerry, when he scored 1-2 and was fouled for a further 0-2, Seanie Johnston’s contribution to the game diminished when he notched his first point of the second half after Daniel Flynn’s charging run from the throw-in.
I would be surprised to see Johnston give as much trouble to the Dublin corner- backs as he did to Shane Enright six days ago.
Working off Tomás O’Connor really seems to suit Johnston, however, and provided they vary their attacks by alternating between direct ball to O’Connor and the more expansive game suited to the jinking athleticism of Kelly and Flynn, Kildare could get some change out of the Dublin defence.
At the other end of the field, it appears to have been overlooked during the hoopla that followed Bernard Brogan’s sublime performance against Mayo last weekend that only four players have managed to get on the scoresheet in each of Dublin’s last two games.
With Brogan in irresistible form since pre-season matches in the O’Byrne Cup, the lack of a scoring spread might be irrelevant, but it goes against the trend that’s been emerging since the start of the league, with teams getting their scores from almost every area of the field.
Of course, Dublin pioneered this trend with Stephen Cluxton setting the standard for scoring goalkeepers a fashion for which Tyrone goalkeeper, Niall Morgan, is the new flag-bearer.
Either way, as Paddy Heaney observed on these pages a few days ago, spreading the load when it comes to scores isn’t a luxury. It’s an absolute necessity of the modern game.
Dublin’s lack of a scoring spread may or may not be a concern to Jim Gavin but Brogan’s consistent excellence aside, he may wish to plan for the day that their marquee forward is subdued or unavailable. I have no doubt that the likes of Paul Flynn, Paddy Andrews, Diarmuid Connolly, Kevin McManamon and Alan Brogan, when he eventually returns, will shoulder some of the scoring burden but there will come a day between here and the end of the year when Dublin will be calling on the likes of McAuley, McCaffrey, O’Sullivan and even Cluxton to get them over the line.
Jim Gavin’s famously extensive panel of 50-plus members contrasts with that of McGeeney’s Kildare who’ve deployed just 22 players in their three games that have brought them to the top of the table. Apart from having a smaller pool, it suggests that Kildare are set on a particular type of player to get them where they need to go in 2013.
Although it may seem premature, with each passing week it’s looking like Dublin and Kildare are on a collision course for a probable provincial semi-final in late June which may ultimately decide the destiny of this year’s Leinster title. Given that they’ve had a virtual monopoly on all things provincial since 2005, Dublin’s need might not be as urgent as Kildare’s and their aim might not be as focused.
There is no doubt Kildare have come a long way since last August but taking two points from the team James Horan described during the week as the most “electric” in the country might prove beyond them.
