O'Flaherty glad to see his brother back ahead of the 'biggest game of the year'

At 27 years of age, Eoghan O'Flaherty is probably one of the best placed members on the team when it comes to preparing for vital championship encounters. The Carbury forward has been a part of the Kildare senior squad since 2009, and it is highly likely that he will be one of only two or three players starting against Wexford on Saturday whose Kildare careers have spanned over two decades. For O'Flaherty, the buzz around the beginning championship still holds the same anticipation as it did seven years ago before he made his debut, and though he admits that the loss to Clare in the league final was a slight hiccup, his side are well prepared. "Everyone is always looking towards the championship and when you start at the beginning of the year it seems a long time away. But we got through the league and got promoted, unfortunately we didn't win the league final, but the Wexford game is the biggest game of the year we've had so far." "We wanted to get promoted and get back up to Division two, and that was Cian's aim when he came into us. It was disappointing to lose to Clare in the way we did, after getting into a good position and we didn't see it out. We've learned from it and improved on certain aspects from that game since, so hopefully if we get into that situation again we'll be able to manage the game and see it out," beamed O'Flaherty. The Carbury forward may be joined by his brother Morgan in the starting side against Wexford on Saturday following his recall to the Kildare panel last month, and Eoghan is more than happy to see his older sibling back involved, citing the 32-year-old's hard work at club level as the reason he has been called back in. "It's good. I'm delighted he's back in. He's been training hard with the club. He had it in his head that if he got the chance to come back in that he'd jump at it, and he's after making the panel so I'm delighted for him." "Lads in there will know his style of play and I'm sure they're happy enough to have him back as well. He's injury free at the moment so he is another option to have there," he said. Despite the geographical closeness of both counties, and the fact that they the two sides tend to make it to the latter stages of the Leinster Championship almost every year, Kildare and Wexford haven't met since 2009, making this game somewhat of a novelty pairing. The Slaneysiders team has changed quite a lot in the intervening years, but the one thing that remains the same is their propensity to rack up a high score through their accurate full-forward line of Ciaran Lyng, PJ Banville and Ben Brosnan. Both Lyng and Banville lined out against the Lilywhites in 2009, and O'Flaherty is wary of the threat they pose to the Kildare defence, while he also cited the new threat of U21 star Donal Shanley. "Their full-forward line of [Ben] Brosnan, [PJ] Banville and Ciaran Lyng, ya know, we're going to be under pressure there. They have a young lad kicking frees as well, Donal Shanley. So if we're conceding frees like the volume we were in the league, we're going to be conceding seven or eight points there, so that's something we're going to have to be aware of when the game comes around," he warned. While Kildare may have a problem with the amount of frees they have been conceding this year, they are well stocked at the opposite end to tag on points whenever they are awarded a shot at goal inside 50 metres. Adam Tyrell, Neill Flynn, Niall Kelly and O'Flaherty are all expert free-takers, and they have all stepped up at various times to prove that point so far in 2016. Flynn would look to be the most likely striker of a dead ball for the upcoming championship, and O'Flaherty is happy to take a backseat in terms of place-kicking if it helps his team. "Neill Flynn was kicking them in the league final, and Adam was kicking them from his side so it will all come down to selection and who's on the field. I'm not sure how the team is going to line out. There is a number of us there that would be practising. Neill Flynn has the advantage over all of us, that his distance is phenomenal, he can nail 60, 65 metre kicks comfortably. So if he's on the field he'll probably take them all, certainly on his side anyway. After that it'll probably come down to selection, who's on the field and who is best placed," he noted. Cian O'Neill is the third manager that O'Flaherty has played under at senior level for Kildare, and having enjoyed relative success under Kieran McGeeney before a turbulent couple of seasons with Jason Ryan at the helm, O'Flaherty is in a good position to full describe the new management setup. "I think it's quite similar[to other years]. Schedule wise and training load he seems to be very on par to what we've done in other years. Some lads are playing college football and doing exams, you have to be able to manage them and not train them to hard at that time of year. In fairness to Cian, he's involved in a college so he's well aware of those issues and he is able to manage them correctly," he said. "From that side of things, I'd say Cian is fairly similar set up to the last year or two, and I'd imagine, from when I speak to lads in other counties, it's fairly similar regime to other counties too. Obviously he has a completely new background team with him, so that's obviously different, but generally it's the same idea but a different way of coaching."