All-Ireland Final: a great day that still brings back painful memories with Kildare

Shin, shin, game over, ball burst. The football season of 2025 is all done dusted following Sunday's decider.

In front of an attendance of 83,000 the boys from the north west had no answer to the pace, power and penetration of Jack O'Connor's lads.

There is something very special about All-Ireland Football final Sunday, even when one's own county is not part of the main act.

Waiting on the 11.01 train to arrive at Newbridge Train Station heading to the Big Smoke, on Sunday, one wondered if Kildare were actually in action, such was the number of local fans heading up, many of them, it seems, adopted Kerry fans for the day, sporting hats, jerseys and scarves in the colours of The Kingdom.

We bumped into some familiar faces along the way, apart, from the Newbridge contingent.

Clane man, Frank Duffy was certainly in the running for the 'Best Turned Out' prize, on the day; Athy's Marty McEvoy couldn't wait for the action to get under way, while Tommy 'Unofficial' O'Connell was in flying form as usual; Ollie Ryan was in situ when we arrived, as was Towers's Paddy Byrne; while Yours Truly sat beside husband and wife Dubs, but with strong Kildare connections through one Dermot Reilly — John and Emer O'Connor (Emer being a renowned apple tart national champion).
You meet them all on All-Ireland final day.

Still it all brings back memories of a time when we were up there with the big guns.
Mixing it with the best.
Hard to believe that is now all of 27 years ago since the towns and villages of Kildare was festooned in a sea of white.
Every pole.
Every lamp post.
Anything that didn't move.
And some things that did move.
You name it and it was covered.

Billy Dunne got a make-over — his black mop turned into something resembling a cauliflower and a parsnip.
It was a magical time.
But the fact that 27 years on we are still talking about it says it all.
1998.
The year of the Good Friday Agreement.
The year of the Blue Flu.
The year the Tour de France came to Ireland.
The year Bill Clinton and Monica what's-her-name had a bit of a fling.
Or whatever.
And Galway won the All-Ireland.
It still hurts.

Which tells it all — 27 years on we are still not just talking about that final, but the fact that it still hurts is a testament to where Kildare is at present, despite having enjoyed plenty of success at U21, U20 and indeed minor level.

And then when you look back on the make-up of many of Kildare's footballers who did so well in 2025, and realise the vast majority of them were not even born when Glenn Ryan led Kildare out to face Galway on that memorable occasion.
And go back further — way back — and realise that it is now all of 97 years since Kildare last brought the Sam Maguire down the Naas Road.

A time when there was no dual-carriageway.
No motorway.
No by-passing Saggart.
No by-passing Rathcoole.
No by-passing Kill.

On the other side of that there was a train station in Naas (I'm told) — a station that opened in 1885 and ran for 76 years before it was decided its existence was surplus to requirements.
Fair bit of foresight there!

Things reached a new low then when The Lilies were not even allowed to participate for Sam in 2025.
Thankfully that has been rectified after Kevin Feely walked up the steps of the Hogan Stand to collect the Tailteann Cup.

But really, when you realise in three years time, we could — hopefully not — but could be 'celebrating' 100 years since Kildare were crowned All-Ireland senior football champions.
If it doesn't sink in with that stat then it never will.

But hopefully while we might still have a long way to travel to get back to the Holy Grail on the Big Day, at least now we are allowed to rub shoulders with the hierarchy.
Courtesy of Brian Flanagan and his squad of 2025.
A long way to go?
Absolutely.

Still there was no shortage of Kildare involvement on Sunday.
In the middle and taking charge of his first All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was our own Brendan Cawley.
The fact there was a hardly a mention of the match official — now officially referred to as An Réiteoir — is testament to the game the Sarsfields man enjoyed, along with his umpires, sorry, Score Umpires, David Coady, Lee Moore, Eoghan Fitzpatrick and Johnny Farrell.

It's amazing really if An Réiteoir makes a mistake or two or has a poor day he gets castigated but when he puts on a top-class display, as we saw on Sunday from Brendan Cawley, he is just ignored.
Crazy or what.

More interest from a Kildare point of view, apart from Jack O'Connor being a former Kildare manager who gained promotion to AFL Division 1, before being recalled to The Kingdom, was his Head Coach Cian O'Neill, another Newbridge native and former Kildare manager.

It all adds to the good Doctor's CV, in this his ninth time to be involved as a coach on All-Ireland final day that includes three times with Tipperary hurlers, once with Mayo, twice with Galway and twice with Kerry, prior to Sunday.
Sure any Doctor worth his salt would be over the moon with that.

As for Donegal, maybe too many mind games on the day, obviously pre-planned, not untypical from the Jim McGuinness mind-set, from having to be reminded to join the pre-match parade, amid much booing, and when they did had 16 marching behind the Artane Band, before breaking from the parade early; delaying their reappearance after half-time; all very strange on All-Ireland final day.

Still, at least Donegal returned home as a group on Monday, and to a home-coming they richly deserved; all travelling together on the team bus — unlike, by all accounts, what we hear happened after the hurling decider a week earlier!

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