PREVIEW: Kildare should expect nothing easy from The Lake County

No. 1 ambition successfully completed and while in the end there was much disappointment losing out to Offaly in the Allianz Football League Division 3 final nevertheless being promoted was the aim and everything after that will, hopefully, be a bonus.

We cannot forget this is a Kildare team with a lot of young faces, young lads now going into the Leinster Championship on Saturday for the first time.

And while it is a real bonus having a home game against Westmeath, that in itself brings a little bit of added pressure but it should not be forgotten this is all a learning process, nothing is going to be acheved over night, in one season, or maybe two, as far as that goes.

Everything, or a lot anyway, is all new.
New stadium.
New manager.
New rules.
New players.

But one thing that never changes though is expectations.

Kildare expectations, and I'm not sure why they are, but year in, year out, the expectations always seem to be off the wall.
And this season is no different.

Of course when you look back on the league, the start that Kildare got with wins over Fermanagh, Sligo, Laois and Leitrim, the expectation level rocketed.

While those wins were all to be welcomed they were games we would have expected to win if promotion was to be attained.
But like all expectations when they go up, they inevitably, where Kildare are concerned anyway, come back down and a visit to Ennis and a loss to Clare, followed by another set-back against Offaly, saw Kildare needing to defeat Antrim in the final game of the league, a game played in Cedral St Conleth's Park, on an afternoon when a near gale was blowing into the Kilcullen end of the stadium.

And the boys in yellow certainly took full advantage with a handful of two-pointers that saw them lead at the break by five.
In fairness once the elements turned in the home side's favour they (Kildare) took full advantage turning that deficit into a nine point victory, topping the table, gaining promotion and setting up a final against Offaly.

That was a game that The Lilies showed they had learned little from the league game a mere two weeks previously.

The Faithful boys came with the same game-plan, more or less the same players and did exactly to Kildare what they had done previously using their incredible, and impressive pace to turn over The Lilies once again.

Just two points in it in the end and while Kildare did have the opportunity to force extra time with the last kick of the game, it was not to be.

Having said all that there are positives to be taken from the league, despite the final loss.

The Lilies finished top of the table; had the best aggregate score 'for' in the league with a tally of 162; had the best defensive record in the league, 103, giving them the best aggregate score of +59 which was 27 points head of second placed Offaly and 38 points ahead of Clare, all of course with 10 points.

So a lot of positives can be taken from those stats.

There are elements of Kildare's play that leaves many scratching their collective head in wonderment, the main one being the lack of two-pointers, from frees but especially from open play.

A two-pointer from open play gives a team a real lift; while against that conceding two-pointers can, at times, be a real blow.
In that Antrim game the visitors that afternoon hit no less than six two-pointers, three two-pointer frees and three two-pointers from open play; not many, if any, teams have achieved such a tally throughout the entire league in all four divisions.

In Division 1, of course Kerry are one of the few teams who do not seem to have embraced the two-pointers but then when you have a forward line such as Jack O'Connor has, you don't need to be relying on two-pointers to get over the line.

It has crossed the mind on more than one occasion that Kildare players, rightly or wrongly, seem to be encouraged to retain possession rather than take a pop from outside the 'arc' it is something that can be very frustrating to watch; not as frustrating though as seeing the boys in white revert to type and return to passing across the field over and over again instead of going forward, instead of breaking, or attempting to break the line and thus creating scoring opportunities.

Saturday's opponents, Westmeath, have not won a game in the league, albeit Division 2, but they are certainly being looked upon as one of the unluckiest sides in the entire four divisions of the Allianz Football League.

There best result in the league was a draw with Roscommon in their final game but prior to that they lost to Down by 2; to Meath by 1 (conceding a goal in time added on); to Cavan by 4; to Cork by 1; to Monaghan by 8 and to Louth by 2.
So a lot of games that went right down to the wire. There aggregate scores were: for 162; against 181 giving them an aggregate of -19.

Still, going through the league, any league, without winning a single game can really knock the stuffing out of teams; God knows we in Kildare know how that feels after last season.

It is when the pressure comes on that those poor results come back to haunt a side at times; the feeling that regardless how close games had been, when you fall behind the mind automatically (at times) gives a feeling of 'here we go again.'

Whether that league form affects Westmeath we will have to wait and see but from a Kildare point of view it has to be The Lilies concentrating on their own game; their own strengths and ensuring not to concede goals if at all possible while getting onto the scoresheet as quickly and as often as possible, taking chances and putting the opposition, as Jack Charlton use to say, “under pressure.”

Injuries have hit Kildare throughout the 2025 season but hopefully the fully fit signs will be up for most of the Kildare lads this time around.

Darragh Kirwan, who came on at half-time against Offaly, is an absolute vital cog in the Kildare scoring machine; a class act he can win a game on his own as he has shown on numerous occasion.

Ben McCormack missed that last game but is expected to be available while Kevin Flynn made a very welcome second half appearance a couple of weeks ago.

On the down side Ryan Houlihan was forced off with a recurrence of a hamstring injury and the Moorefield man looks likely to miss this one.

The form of Callum Bolton, Alex Beirne, Niall Kelly and captain Kevin Feely is vital; a few big decisions will have to be made when Brian Flanagan and his selectors sit down to select.

Hopefully they come up with the right mix, the right combination that will see The Lilies retain their unbeaten record at the redevelopment stadium and book a place in the Leinster semi-final.

Fingers crossed!

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