Lilywhites selector Carew raises the standard for Leinster

KILDARE selector Niall Carew has launched a staunch defence of the standard of football in the Leinster senior championship.

The critics were out in force after the paucity of quality and entertainment in last weekend’s quarter-final clash of Dublin and Meath. The facts concerning the game’s health in the eastern province are well worn but no less damning for it. No All-Ireland winner in 10 years, no All-Ireland finalist in eight.

Carew offers a different perspective.

“I think it can stand up. Look at Dublin. Mayo beat them by a point a couple of years ago to get to an All-Ireland final and that was nearly a freak. Dublin were something like eight points up and going quite well.

“Tyrone beat Dublin last year. They might have beaten them well in the end but they (Tyrone) scored two goals that they might never get again and they went on to win the All-Ireland.

“I don’t think the overall standard in Leinster is poor. Wexford got to the semi-final last year and we got to the quarter-finals. I don’t think the likes of Kildare, Dublin or Wexford would be afraid of any team. Only time will tell.

“The Kerry-Cork game, you wouldn’t put that down as a classic either.

“If Kildare and Wexford had played that game, people would be looking at it and saying how dismal Leinster is.”

Last weekend’s fixture at HQ has only accelerated the growing air of expectancy about this Kildare team, which has benefited hugely from the arrivals from Armagh of Kieran McGeeney and Paul Grimley. Having suffered a shock defeat against Wicklow in last year’s provincial championship, the Lilywhites turned their season around, reached the All-Ireland quarter-final, and they already have one victory — over an admittedly mediocre Offaly side — to their credit this summer.

With Wexford suffering an annus horribilis after their championship heroics last year, it would be a stunning reversal of form and fortunes if Kildare did not advance to a semi-final this weekend.

“I don’t know if you are familiar with footing turf but, as the fella says, there is a lot of turf to be footed yet. Wexford is our big game now. We can’t afford to look beyond them and that isn’t just a cliché,” said Carew.

“Our win against Offaly was our first in Leinster in four seasons so that was a big game for us. There was massive pressure on us going into that game. The way we were talked up and things like that. We won by five or six points but if we didn’t get that start against Offaly it could have been a different story altogether. We have no excuses going into this game now though. If they beat us it will just be because we weren’t good enough.”