Mac Lochlainn puts trust in Lilywhites’ attacking options

Kildare corner-back Aindriú Mac Lochlainn has hit out at critics of his county’s attack. Despite scoring 0-19 in their opening victory against Offaly, it was The Sunday Game in particular that complained about a lack of killer instinct and an inability to get goals.

“I find it a bit farcical. I don’t know what games they’re watching,” said Mac Lochlainn. “I can nearly say that every player, including those that don’t start, they’re the most natural, hard-working of forwards. Lads can take frees off the ground and out of their hands, with both feet, lads are willing to work hard, to make runs for other players. I don’t know where it comes from, genuinely I don’t.”

Mac Lochlainn’s frustration is supported by the stats. Between 2009 and the Offaly game, his county appeared in 21 championship matches, scoring 23 goals, a figure not skewed by any rout. Across 2009 and 2010, they averaged 1.2 goals and 15 points per game, or 18.6 per championship outing, which made them the highest scoring team in the country.

Last year, they were still averaging 16.6 points per game.

Even in this year’s league, they were accurate as their 9-105 made them the highest scoring team across all four divisions bar Wexford and excluding Kilkenny’s results.

“Look,” he continued. “We would have been disappointed that we didn’t take our opportunities in front of goal the last day but it’s a lot worse if you’re not creating them. We created them which is the difficult part, the last part is to finish them off. But I know how good these forwards are.

“Sometimes the lads you’re marking in training can really give you a ‘scutching’ and you really have to be on your game.”

One of those players he has been picking up in training has been Seánie Johnston. As good as Kildare are, it’s been this never-ending story that’s dragged right through the league and into the first buds of summer that has captured most attention.

You ask if his own management are to blame, given their handling of a situation with such serious ethics and morals involved?

“I’m not just saying it, I haven’t taken a blind bit of notice. For me, once he came in the door and was willing to put in the same effort I was, that was good enough. In my eyes he was a Kildare man then, it just took others a while longer to realise it.”

However, while that is a situation that will no doubt be dragged up again after Sunday’s clash with Meath, the Leinster semi-final is a game big enough to briefly divert attention.

“When you’re playing in Leinster and in the same division, you play each other a lot. And there’s very little between the teams, so they’re always competitive,” said Mac Lochlainn. “You play each other so often, being favourite becomes irrelevant so that means nothing to us.”