Quaid takes aim at referee and Croke Park following Kildare's Christy Ring Cup exit

Proud. Frustrated. Pissed off. You could use any one of those three adjectives to describe Kildare hurling manager Joe Quaid’s mood straight after witnessing his side crash out of the Christy Ring Cup at the quarter-final stage thanks to an 11-point defeat to Carlow.

Proud because Kildare put in their best performance since facing the same opposition in the league two months ago; frustrated because a plethora of refereeing decisions went against his side, meaning Carlow clocked up 11 points from frees, and pissed off with the structure of the tournament because his players won’t play intercounty hurling again this year.

So to start with the pride and frustration, Quaid was delighted that his side hung in there until the final 10 minutes after having Conor Gordon sent off five minutes into the second half.

“These lads were up against it today and, to be fair, they died with their boots on,” he said.

“I can’t express the admiration I have for that bunch in there. They’re the lads that have been there since last year; they’re the lads that committed to Kildare hurling. I said to them in there that they should be proud of themselves; they’re the lads that wanted to be there for pride. They’re the lads that we weren’t begging to come in; they’re the lads that came in at their own free will. You say there today that they were up against it, but I’m just proud of the way they conducted themselves today. It just didn’t run for us, there are a lot of reasons to be fair.

“I thought we got absolutely rode by the referee today, and I’m not the only who thought that. Look, you can give out about referees all you want, but at one stage we were down to 14 men and had it back to three points; we battled.

Focusing further on the performance of referee Mick Murtagh, Quaid outlined how it was one of the major problems with hurling at this level and that it is holding back the progression of counties such as Kildare.

“It’s embarrassing. It’s really why hurling is struggling at this level, when a game isn’t allowed to flow. Last week we had Cathal McAllister here and I absolutely complimented him. He made an absolutely fantastic game of hurling. That game wasn’t allow flow today, and until Croke Park start looking at that… they have assessors in the stand, and look, referees have a hard job, but that game wasn’t let flow at any stage.”

The Limerick native, who has now completed two seasons at the helm in Kildare, expressed how happy he was to see his side perform to this level again, something that has been lacking since they drew with Carlow in the fourth round of the league.

“One thing we can’t forget out of the year is that it has been Kildare’s best league season I think ever,” he said.

“Normally it’s a case of yo-yoing between 2B and 2A, and this year we were the width of a crossbar away from possibly playing in Division 1B next year, we can’t forget that. It wasn’t a great championship.

“I think the disappointment of the match here against Carlow, we never recovered from that. It put us out of contention for qualifying for the league final. Until today, and I saw the team we had playing in the league back playing today and it was fantastic. I said it to the lads, the one thing we have to do, as a panel, we have to stop building a new panel every year. I’ve asked the lads to stay here and we’ll drive it on. You have to have consistency.”

Kildare were without the Reidy brothers, Michael and David, as they were on duty with their clubs in the Limerick Championship, while John Mulhall was also lining out for St Martin’s in Kilkenny. The rules for permit players stipulates that they must line out with their clubs before their adopted counties, and Quaid was quick to praise them for what they have given to Kildare hurling this year, while also stressing how some players in Kildare won’t commit to playing for the county.

“To be fair to the lads it probably got us where we are and it hurt them as much,” he said.

“If we had beaten Wicklow last weekend we wouldn’t have had that problem today, it was in our own hands and it’s something we flagged a long time ago. But do you know what, I made nearly 60 phone calls this year, and to be fair, the two Reidys and John Mulhall, when I rang them they said yes straight away and it’s a pity that there’s people in Kildare who won’t do that and that’s the pity about it.

“We put out a full Kildare team today from the start, add a few more Kildare lads with it and there’ll be no need for the two Reidys and John Mulhall and lads like that to play with Kildare. I was an advocate of that from the start of the year. Now fair play to them, they came in and they upped the level of training, preparation and matches and they’ve been a huge help, but Kildare shouldn’t need outside players. The players are in the county but they just need to come in and commit.

He’ll be back for a third term next year, and it’s something he is already looking forward to. Asked about how he would sum up his first couple of years, Quaid said it has been successful, before rounding back to have another cut at the GAA hierarchy over the structure of the Christy Ring Cup.

“They’ve been extremely successful as far as I’m concerned. We scraped home in the league last year to stay up. We were the width of the crossbar this year from going up,” he said.

“I’ve said it before; the Christy Ring is a tournament played over eight weeks. A lot depends on injuries and the availability of players and it’s not a true reflection. Our Christy Ring was over in 14 days. Your championship is finished in 14 days; three matches in 14 days. To be fair, Carlow could have been the same if we beat them.

“It’s a joke, these guys have no hurling now in summer. They’ve trained as hard as the Kilkenny’s, Tipp’s, Limerick’s and Cork’s since last December and because the GAA want to get the Christy Ring out of the way before the proper championship starts, that’s it.”