Kildare hurling manager Quaid hits out at Christy Ring Cup structure ahead of tomorrow's opener

It’s a busy time for Kildare hurling manager Joe Quaid. He admits that he probably should have thought about things a bit more when he took on a hectic schedule last September, but the Limerick native is putting the hours in for each of his chosen vocations at the moment.

Quaid is getting ready to lead Kildare into the Christy Ring Cup for the second time tomorrow, while at the same time completing a Masters in Sports Psychology and also working full-time with Ulster Bank.

He didn’t even have time to get down to the Gaelic Grounds last Sunday to watch his home county take on Galway in the National League semi-final due to a pile-up of assignments that needed addressing, but his focus over the next few weeks will be very much based around Kildare’s fortunes in the Christy Ring Cup.

They begin their campaign with a trip to Mayo on Saturday, and it will also kick off what could be an incredibly hectic schedule over the next seven weeks for the hurlers. They could feasibly play five games before June 10, meaning there is little time to breathe and even less time to recover from game to game.

It’s certainly not a structure that Quaid is enamoured with, and the former All-Star goalkeeper was none too subtle in his criticism of the competition when speaking to the Kildare Post this week.

“Realistically it’s not a championship; it’s a tournament played over seven weeks, which is a pity,” he said.

“I think I saw Sambo[McNaughton] in the paper there this morning, saying that they could be finished playing hurling in three or four weeks’ time before you get an opportunity to train and do a full session in the evening. It’s mad really; it’s a case of playing it and getting it out of the way.

“People that get to the finals, the latest they’ll be playing is June 10 and the Leinster Championship won’t have even started by then.”

From next year onwards the winner of the Christy Ring Cup will be entered into the group stages of the Leinster Championship, but that does little for the other seven teams who will have concluded their summer’s hurling by the second weekend in June.

“That is a positive step, but at the end of the day that only really caters for one team. There are eight teams in the Christy Ring and seven of them will be finished come the beginning of June,” remarked Quaid.

“We thought last year we were in a good enough position to win it and we haven’t changed our tack on that, but, as I say, a lot of it depends on injuries, getting a run of form and a bit of momentum. It’s not something you can plan for; if any team has two or three of their star players getting injured it’s not a long enough competition to recover from that.

“I think it’s just playing lip service to the competition to run it off like that. You’ll see for the first round of the Munster Championship the winners of that might have five or six weeks before they’re out again. Whereas we’ll have nearly a full competition run off in that space of time.

“You’ve Sambo saying it, I’m saying it, and the rest of the managers are probably saying the same thing.”

Preparations for this year’s campaign have been good however. A solid league campaign where Division 2A status was retained with ease was a positive start, but Kildare could be lining out without some of their stars when they take on Mayo.

David Reidy is doubtful after suffering a hamstring injury in the final round of the league against Longford, while Mark Delaney is also facing a race against time to make it back from a shoulder injury picked up on club duty with Coill Dubh, while Ross Bergin and Conor Gordon are also coming back from injury.

“We have quite a big injury list at the moment,” acknowledged Quaid.

“Mark Delaney is doubtful, David Reidy is doubtful, Ross Bergin is just back from injury. Conor Gordon is just trying to get back from injury, so there’s quite a few of them.

“Preparations are going good, but I suppose the few challenges, without five or six lads – Mark Moloney was out injured for a while but he’s back – if you’re missing that many it’s a huge chunk out of your team. John Doran hasn’t really played or trained since the London match with injury.

“We played Westmeath and we played Meath; they’ve been good matches, but without the spine of your team it’s difficult.

“It has given fellas opportunities to put their hands up for selection and even making the 26 so it has definitely given us an insight into that.”

One player who definitely won’t be involved is Ardclough star Martin Fitzgerald. The 2014 Christy Ring Cup winner returned to training with the county a number of weeks ago but picked up a number of niggling injuries, and Quaid revealed that he will focus on club commitments for the remainder of the year and hopefully return in 2018.

“It was just too late for him to be coming back, and to be picking up injuries again it just wasn’t working out,” said Quaid.

“Basically we have the next seven weeks, you’re not going to get through an intense programme like that with no pre-season behind you. He came in for a few weeks and picked up a few niggly and its hard to shake them off.

“He has decided just to park it for this year and to get himself right and play with the club and get back for next year.

A month will have passed by the time Kildare play Mayo and their last competitive outing against London in the league, meaning the Lilywhites went back into pre-season mode ahead of their championship challenge. Their manager outlined how most of the emphasis is based on ball skills and not the normal slog of endless fitness training, keeping with the Limerick man’s traditional values.

“We started that after the Carlow match when we knew we were more than likely out of the running for the final of the league so we had a week off after that and we started our pre-season then,” he revealed.

“Our training has always been catered towards a mix of both. I’m a firm believer of its hurling your playing, and yes, you need to be fit, but when we’ve trained it has always been heavily loaded towards hurling and you introduce your fitness stuff in the middle of that. I’m not a believer of spending two or three weeks or a month or whatever doing plain aul fitness work, at the end of the day it’s a game of hurling you’re playing.”

As for the challenge of Mayo, Quaid is confident but admits that it will be a difficult task due to the amount of injuries Kildare are currently nursing. The Westerners may have been relegated from Division 2B, but they won the Nicky Rackard Cup last year and will welcome back some of the footballers who play both codes.

“The league is over and they’ll probably have their couple of footballers playing for them at the weekend. We’re under no illusions, and some of the players have been to Mayo and lost, so we’re not under any illusions of how tough the challenge will be; more so if we’re carrying a fairly substantial injury load.

“I wouldn’t say it’s an easier start to last year but we have a less high profile team, but the first round of any championship is tough no matter who you’re playing. Being drawn away to Antrim last year, I know it ended up in Parnell Park, but we got a bit of a trimming. We gathered momentum then and we were unlucky not to beat Meath in the semi-final.

Such momentum will be key this time around, and a win over the Connacht men would represent a fine start to their campaign.