Kelly hoping for change in Kildare’s fortune

AFTER everything that happened last summer, this was supposed to be a big year for Rob Kelly and the Kildare footballers.

Though the 2009 campaign ended with more than a few regrets, Kieran McGeeney’s men came away from it knowing they were within striking distance of teams like Dublin and Tyrone, both of whom had little to spare in defeating the Lilywhites.

Kelly was very much part of that. Though still an U21 at the time, the Straffan clubman was a regular off the bench and the feeling was that 2010 could be their breakout year. The reality, thus far, has been very different.

Kelly’s own season shipped a heavy blow on the first day of the National League when he suffered a knee injury in the defeat against Down and, though he struggled on gamely for some months, he finally succumbed to the knife two weeks ago.

A torn cruciate ligament has hobbled Kelly’s season and Kildare will now have to make an All-Ireland semi-final, at least, if he is to harbour any hopes of adding to his Championship CV this year.

The evidence from their league form does little to support such a scenario. They were expected to lead the chase for promotion to the top flight from Division Two but flattered to deceive. Investigations into their Division Two experience have alighted on the fact that Paul Grimley departed for Monaghan during the off-season although McGeeney was quick to fill the void with another gem from the Armagh stable in the shape of Aidan O’Rourke. The pair come heavily endorsed by Kelly in spite of the losses suffered this spring.

“We would have been aiming for promotion,” said Kelly. “But the way we were training, the big thing was always the championship. Everything was geared towards that. The ball didn’t bounce our way in a few games. We showed what we were capable of in some others.”

Luck works both ways however and the feeling was that Kildare got the rub of the green late last year when the draw for the 2010 Leinster Championship handed them a favourable path through to the final.

With Dublin, Meath, Wexford and Laois all stacked on the opposite side, Kildare find themselves facing Louth in a quarter-final this Sunday.

Win that, and they’ll be confronted by either Wicklow or Westmeath in the last four.

“I don’t know if you can say there is a good side of the draw in the Championship,” said Kelly. “It is a whole new ball game. You never know who is going to come out to surprise you. If it is Dublin, Laois, Meath, we will prepare the very same way.”

Whether their league form is a genuine cause for concern or an insignificant bump on the road to greater things remains to be seen, but McGeeney’s side should be all the better equipped to cope with what is to come after their experiences this time last year.

A ridiculous 16/1 shot to claim provincial honours starting out, they really should have beaten a 14-man Dublin side in the Leinster final and it was a similar ‘what if’ against Tyrone in the All-Ireland quarter-final, when only two points separated the counties. Kelly concedes that the old maxim of losing big ones before winning one could apply to his colleagues.

“We are a seriously young team. When you look back at it, experience might have been the thing that stood against us last year.

“We hadn’t been in those situations to the same extent of someone like Tyrone. Tyrone were that bit smarter but that’ll stand to us this year.”