McDonnell: Croker familiarity aids Kildare

The debate rages every year about whether or not Dublin have an unfair advantage when playing at Croke Park but Emmet McDonnell maintains it’s not just the Blues that benefit in this regard.

The Offaly manager must bring his side to HQ on Saturday evening to take on a Kildare team that knows the place pretty well, having been regular visitors to Jones’ Road since Kieran McGeeney took over for the 2008 season.

“I was talking to (former Kildare selector) Niall Carew the day of the league semi-finals and he was saying to me that while Offaly had massively improved from last year, he reckons in terms of fitness, he reckons Kildare had improved massively as well.