"These are the days I grew up dreaming of"- Brophy delighted to be back starring for Kildare

Having not swept across the lush grass of a gaelic football pitch wearing a Kildare jersey for four years, Paddy Brophy was more than happy to make up for lost time by playing an important role in the Lilywhites' nine-point win over Meath on Saturday. The former Australian Rules player has only been back in Ireland for less than two months at this stage, but such is the talent that he possesses, Cian O’Neill was never likely to leave him outside the parameters of his panel for too long. The big question was not if Brophy would feature this year, it was when. Paul Cribbin’s injury meant that an opening arrived, and while Cian O’Neill said that he and his management team took time deliberating over who to catapult in the starting team, Brophy was more than happy to seize his chance. “I found out during the week and we were trying to keep it a bit quiet and then obviously Paul got injured during the week,” said Brophy. “Hopefully Paul will get back for the Leinster final as well, but there’s massive competition in the squad as well, which is only good for Kildare football. “I’m loving it. These are the days I grew up dreaming of so it’s great to be back here, and I think I brought the weather with me.” The Celbridge man took a while to get going in the game, kicked a couple of wides and also struggled initially to find his rhythm. But what was always evident was his movement as he constantly pulled one way before darting out to his left and claiming every ball that was played his way. Once he took a pass from Ollie Lyons and instinctively curled the ball over on the turn without glancing at the goal, it was clear to see that his confidence was up. He finished with a couple of points to his name, and it’s fair to say that it looks very positive for Kildare going forward to see the former underage star back to spearhead the Lilywhites attack. “It was a good result obviously but we haven’t won anything yet,” he said after the win over Meath. “We have four weeks now until Dublin or Westmeath and we’ll go back to the training ground on Tuesday and work hard again. “I thought our defence was excellent in the first half; they turned over the ball really well. We wasted a couple of scoring opportunities in the first half which we’ll go back and work on, but we just need to be a bit more clinical. Like I said, we’ve a lot to work on because the next four weeks are going to be massive.” “We talked about that at half-time that they would come back all guns blazing at the start of the second half. They had a purple patch the first 10 minutes but we weathered the storm and I think we defended well in the second half as well. “We haven’t been in a Leinster final since 2009 so it’s massive to get over that hoodoo and we’ll look forward to the next four weeks.” Considering the impact that Brophy was able to make against Meath despite only being involved with the panel for just over four weeks, there are high hopes that another four weeks of training will bring him on even further. With Neill Flynn also appearing off the bench for the Lilywhites it means that Kildare’s attacking options are well stocked right now, even allowing for the injuries to Paul Cribbin and Ben McCormack. Brophy scored a goal the last time he faced the Dubs in Croke Park, so he will be hoping that the trick can be repeated if it proves to be Jim Gavin’s men that Kildare meet in this year’s Leinster final.