Relieved Kildare keeping feet on the ground

KILDARE’S Ronan Sweeney has expressed relief at ending their drought of Leinster championship wins. Sunday’s opening round win over Offaly was the Lilywhites first provincial victory since defeating Wicklow in 2005.

Sweeney recognises that there will be ‘huge expectations’ in Kildare ahead of a quarter-final with Wexford but insisted the squad will remain grounded.

He admitted: “the fans seem to get carried away a lot when we get one win under our belts, but we’re under no illusions. We’re still miles off where we want to get to. We have a lot of work to do still.”

The Moorefield star agreed the players had reason to be pleased with the quality of their play in Portlaoise, especially over the opening quarter, agreeing it was probably the highest standard they have reached for a long time.

“We’ve probably had a few good performances. Maybe around 10 years ago, the memory is going! Certainly it was satisfying to be involved in a good display like that. We did take our foot off the gas at the end of the first-half and at times in the second-half we were a bit out on our feet so we’ve got to work on that as well.

“It was a great feeling walking into the dressing-room after winning a Leinster championship match. I’d nearly forgotten what it’s like because it has been so long. We won a couple of games in the qualifiers last year but it’s not really the same.”

Feeling that Wexford’s ambitions will be higher having gone so far last season, Sweeney agrees it would be a mistake to read too much into the Slaneysiders’ League form.

And, from their own perspective there is a ready acceptance that they need to brush up on their shooting.

“It’s been happening a few times recently where we’ve been having a lot of wides,” said Sweeney. “It’s good to have the chances which is one way of looking at it but we have to get that in order if we have ambitions to go any further. We won’t get as many chances the next day.

With Meath and Dublin on the other side of the draw he downplayed talk of the Lilywhites making the final.

“Even though we played well in patches, we’re way off. We’re not expecting anything. We’re hoping to win the All-Ireland but what you hope for and what you get don’t always happen. It’s 2000 since we won anything so Wexford is the only game on our minds!”