Kildare boss discovers Dublin drive-for-five hype is all-consuming

“My quotes were taken out of context” is sport’s version of “that money was just resting in my account” but were Cian O’Neill to plead as much on Sunday evening, he would be pardoned. It’s only early June but his “we are going to win that match” remark ahead of Kildare’s Leinster SFC semi-final against Dublin could turn out to be the most cruelly interpreted lines of the GAA year, possibly even the decade.

Despite being interpreted by media outlets as a prediction, his comment following last Sunday’s quarter-final replay win over Longford was an answer to a question about how Kildare would approach the upcoming encounter.

“No, not at all, no,” O’Neill responded, when it was put to them if he would settle for a moral victory on Sunday. “We are going to win that match, we are going to perform.”

You might have been led to believe O’Neill’s line ranks up there for hubris with former Antrim manager Dinny Cahill’s assessment prior to the 2004 All-Ireland SHC quarter-final against Cork.

“We are going to win on Sunday — I think we can also win the All-Ireland,” he said, while adding, “I talk straight. I say what is true.

People can publish what they like but I’m telling the truth. Cork are finished, Brian Corcoran is finished.

Cork won by 22 points, Corcoran scoring 2-1. But then O’Neill is one of the most assured performers in the media, as he proved on the Six One News last July.

He is also acutely aware of drawing too much attention. Two years ago, he expressed frustration that Kildare’s involvement in the GAA Nua programme was televised during the Championship. In the first episode, the Lilywhites has used occlusion goggles in training. “I thought it would have been better placed outside the season,” he rued.

“There was access into training sessions, into match day. You’d have seen all that. I think that’s brilliant. The public need to see all that. But I really felt for anyone who was in the show and then loses at the weekend.”

O’Neill made those comments in Kildare’s press conference prior to being beaten by Dublin by nine points in that summer’s Leinster final.

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After Meath lost by seven points in the 2013 decider, it remains the second smallest losing margin a county has experienced in the province against the All-Ireland champions in the Jim Gavin era.

However, 35 points separated the counties across the two previous occasions Gavin was involved. Both like this Sunday were semi-finals, 4-16 to 1-9 in 2013 and 5-18 to 0-14 in 2015. Like this Sunday, that 19-point thumping four years ago came after Kildare required a quarter-final replay to qualify for the semi-final.

O’Neill knows his history too well to be as stupid as to openly predict Dublin’s downfall by his team’s hand, but perception is everything. In this season of all seasons, almost everything associated with the five-in-a-row chasers, incidentally hoping to extend their 100% run in Leinster to 26 games against Kildare, will be blown out of proportion.