Leinster Championship 2024

Time to move on from a depressing 2024 Allianz League thread.

We are playing in the Leinster Championship in just under 3 weeks on April 14th against the winners of Westmeath or Wicklow who play the previous weekend (April 7th).

Westmeath the favourites to beat Wickow - we have just swapped places with Westmeath in the League (promoted from Div 3) and Wicklow have been relegated to Division 4.

Beat Westmeath and its likely Louth will await us in the Leinster semi-final and the result of that game will determine whether its the All-Ireland or the Tailteann Cup for the remainder of the inter-county season.

Huge upturn in performance levels, both on and off the pitch, needed to see us win those 2 games.

Back to the forum after a bit of an absence - tough watch these days but can’t do much about it ! Yeah, massive turn around needed; in fairness Westmeath probably should have took us out a few years ago in Croker, they walked through us at times, missed a few goal chances. I think we’ll be doing well to beat them in good form let alone the way it’s going now !

I still think we can beat westmeath. But just not sure how lads will react to being humiliated in the league. Only one way to find out.

We haven't won a league match and every team puts 16 plus points on us. Ronan o toole is quality also . A lot depends if Ben MC is back , if he's back and fit I think we might win if not forget about it .

newornowhere wrote:

We haven't won a league match and every team puts 16 plus points on us. Ronan o toole is quality also . A lot depends if Ben MC is back , if he's back and fit I think we might win if not forget about it .

Ronan O'Toole was so so good against Naas in Leinster this year. Never looks down at his feet when soloing. Picks out some brilliant passes and is quality in front of goals. A huge threat. Love a player like him to appear for us.

really_unofficial_kildare wrote:

newornowhere wrote:

We haven't won a league match and every team puts 16 plus points on us. Ronan o toole is quality also . A lot depends if Ben MC is back , if he's back and fit I think we might win if not forget about it .

Ronan O'Toole was so so good against Naas in Leinster this year. Never looks down at his feet when soloing. Picks out some brilliant passes and is quality in front of goals. A huge threat. Love a player like him to appear for us.

He was the best player on the pitch that day by a good bit. Quality

I know it's going on the other thread but here is where we need to be picking the team.

And, let's be honest it's too late to be just firing in young lads. There will be lads starting who have had a bad year.

Writing off too many of the older players will not be good. Niall Kelly for example should have been back in the fold sooner and he still has the ability to get his head up and play good passes inside.

The big issue is what is the story with so many lads like Ben, K Flynn, Jimmy, etc. Kirwan needs time too and our backs have forgotten how to tackle and give away cheap frees.

We seem to be just sleepwalking this year...

Unless the current management team step aside, we aren't beating Westmeath.

That isn't going to happen. Both Rainbow and Ryan stated they'd seen improvements during the league. Where they seen it I'll never know. Our scoring stats never improved. Our defending stats never improved.

We conceded the kickout to Louth for 60mins, Louth lads. Say that out loud to yourself. We conceded the kickout to Louth. Not only Louth, but Fermanagh, Meath and Cavan too.

We're a busted flush, we're punching in time now until the season is over.

Westmeath will beat us and I hope they do.
I hope whoever we get in the next round does also and finish the whole fiasco and farce.

The only trouble with that outcome is that it takes the heat off a completely inept county board.

Here's hoping it will NOT BE a double header in Croker

totalgaa wrote:

Here's hoping it will NOT BE a double header in Croker

Semi Finals
8 - 4 V 5 28.4.2024 Croke Park 2.00pm
9 - 6 V 7 28.4.2024 Croke Park 4.00pm

I meant the quarter final on the 14th

4 Kildare V Westmeath/Wicklow 14.4.2024 Tullamore/Portlaoise
5 Louth V Carlow/Wexford 14.4.2024 Tullamore/Portlaoise

I'm assuming the above is if its Kildare v Westmeath its in Tullamore. The other game then dependent on who wins the Carlow/Wexford game its either Tullamore or Portlaoise, can't see a double header if both in Tullamore, maybe one Saturday evening and the other on Sunday afternoon.

Westmeath in Tullamore or Wicklow in Portlaoise

Mark Dempsey on the Sigerson team of the year … does anyone actually know why he hasn’t been on a Kildare panel since 2021? It’s galling and I’ve never seen it explained

Ohtoohtobe wrote:

Mark Dempsey on the Sigerson team of the year … does anyone actually know why he hasn’t been on a Kildare panel since 2021? It’s galling and I’ve never seen it explained

I genuinely thought he was travelling.

He was travelling but back since last year sometime. Super player did a good job against Dublin a few years back.

LillieLad wrote:

He was travelling but back since last year sometime. Super player did a good job against Dublin a few years back.

Also the standout player on the pitch in most games he has played in in the last 2 years

For whatever reason, he hasn’t been involved. I doubt it’s a decision made that management would ignore him.

County football isn’t for everyone. If he wants to play, he knows where Hawkfield is.

I’d love to see him play again. But if not, all the best to him.

Here's one. If a player lines out in championship, he can't play GAA abroad this summer... How many might decide not to hang around?

TommyKeegan wrote:

Here's one. If a player lines out in championship, he can't play GAA abroad this summer... How many might decide not to hang around?

Can't see that happening at this stage. Commitment would have to have been given at the start of the year. One of the reasons I imagine that Jack Robinson is playing for Clogherinkoe and not Kildare! There are lots of lads playing in Kildare at the moment that have committed to go abroad around June. It's rarely something they decide in March. Visas etc.

Has any of the Dublin lads went to America to play football.

I know Diarmuid Connolly attempted to but was denied entry. This happened after he left the panel however.

I'm not aware of anyone stepping aside from the panel to do it. McCaffrey went travelling for one year, as did Mannion. But I feel like it's not something the Dublin contingent to or have interest in doing ?

I remember we were the same under Geezer, no one went travelling, we used to laugh at the Laois lads commitments etc. Times have changed massively though.

I read an article recently that Dublin got 9 players off their 2017 All-Ireland U-21 winning team (Murchan, Howard, O'Callaghan, Bugler, Basquel, Comerford, Sean McMahon, Cian Murphy, Paddy Small). Compare that to our 2018 U-20 winning team and we only had Masterson and Paddy Woodgate playing on Saturday. I know Jimmy is injured but I don't think any of these players have developed at senior level in the way we hoped. On the 2018 Mayo team we beat Ryan O'Donoghue, Tommy Conroy and Jordan Flynn have become top class inter county players.

Probably stating the obvious, but our biggest problem is our inability to develop our really good underage players into senior inter county players. I think this is down to a lack of structures to develop the players and lack of top quality coaching and S&C. In fairness, Glenn brought in a development panel this year but unless they getting top quality coaching (like Dublin, Mayo etc seem to do) then it's not going to be a success.

That's why the Maynooth University linking up with Meath (and not Kildare) decision was so disappointing, as these are the players we need to keep improving. I think we need to make a couple of full-time appointments (e.g. director of football, head of strength & conditioning) before we can turn the tide. The performances of our underage teams this week (particularly the minors) shows that there is plenty of potential in the county and we are doing a lot right.

Not saying county board is blameless but for a useless bunch who know nothing and should be replaced they are overseeing a radical re vamp of conleth park ,it's their job to also put in place the management team to look after our teams ,well at under age they seem to be getting things right can we agree on that ,it's at senior level it's failure maybe the players coming through are not good enough and commitment level too much for some ,but I still think with a new manager like our under 20 all Ireland winning guy can start with a clean slate from when we exit championship this year and totally change set up ,and then we can shift the blame away from co board for at least 2 weeks

Ah they had first preference on Maynooth and didn’t bother to take the call. They are a disaster.