A Lily In Bloom With Oak Leaf

Following on from my comment on the thread about Niall Browne, Declan Brennan has joined Ballinascreen from Rathangan and has been called into Derry's McKenna Cup panel...

Good luck to him, considering he hadnt broken into the Kildare senior team its hard to see what he could do in Derry.
There were a lot of that U/21 squad that people couldnt wait to get into the senior team, under any other management tenure that would've happened. Thankfully we had the right man in place with the seniors to prevent it.

That's disappointing to hear. Injuries aside he was given plenty of chances.

NBF why do you think its a good thing to '' prevent'' more of those 21's getting into the senior panel ??

Apologies for not elaborating Ballyboy.
IN the past Kildare have had a tendancy to rush the young players. Any guy who shows any bit of 'promise' at minor or U/21, got flung intothe senior panel and often the team. Naturally this proved too much for many of them and cost them an inter county career, and cost Kildare some nice players.
Names like Glavin, Archibald, Ian Lonergan, Hogarty, and Phillips spring to mind. It almost cost Jimmers too!
After a good run with the U/21's in 2008 a lot of people got carried away thinking we would get 6,7 or 8 players to feed into the senior TEAM.
I never believed this to be the case, infact I was very pleasantly surprised at how well that team did that year. The beauty of having an outsie manager in place with no loyalties to anybody was very evident with Geezer picking only the ones who were really capable.
Even at that, some of those stars have struggled to make a name at senior i.e Chalkie, Brennan, Smullen, Morgan Flats.

My post isn't having a go at any individual Ballyboy, its merely making an observation of the failings of our systems in the past.
What ya think?

good luck to him,hear he is one the best bench warmers around!!

Guys coming home from all over the country to play with their county. Don't care if he was good enough for us or not, against every ideal in the GAA!

TommyKeegan wrote:

Guys coming home from all over the country to play with their county. Don't care if he was good enough for us or not, against every ideal in the GAA!!

That sounds a bit rough TK considering Lacey,Murphy and O'Dwyer left their native counties to play with Kildare.

Tommy you can make you point without being nasty about it. You won't like it but I've deleted the nasty bits. It's Christmas after all.

Take you point NBF, and when I think about it prob brought a premature to a lot of guys careers and I include one of our own in that, he played senior, u21 and minor for 2 years and was finished at intercounty level by the time he was 25 when he should have been coming into his prime

Have to agree Tommy, it's some laugh of a comment by a Kildare man...

Declan Brennan wasn't deemed not good enough or unable to break into the squad... he chose to make himself unavailable... recall I made an comment about that here and was checked about it. Because the reason for his unavailability, that he gave, was that he was concentrating on his studies... and now he's moving north for his studies.......................................

Terrible pity, would have strengthened the squad significantly and been a big push for the first team last year and this year and the future but you got to buy into the thing... wish him luck though, a very good footballer.

agree with tommy on this one here. Also with the way he put it.

Shane McCormack was able to commute from his studies in Scotland to train with Kildare last year and his committment was rewarded with the No1 jersey for the championship.

Your better off without someone who not fully committed to the cause because when the chips are down they will be the first to go hiding.

If he's with Derry come our League meeting it should be interesting.
I dont wish him any bad luck, but i certainly dont want him to be sucessful with Derry.

Thats a horrifc drive from Derry to Kildare as we witnessed during the summer. If he succeeds best of luck to him and if he comes back to us a better player even better. But I think even Jesus himself would struggle to turn Derry around.

fionnmccool wrote:

agree with tommy on this one here. Also with the way he put it.

Shane McCormack was able to commute from his studies in Scotland to train with Kildare last year and his committment was rewarded with the No1 jersey for the championship.

Your better off without someone who not fully committed to the cause because when the chips are down they will be the first to go hiding.

If he's with Derry come our League meeting it should be interesting.
I dont wish him any bad luck, but i certainly dont want him to be sucessful with Derry.

bit small minded of you here fionn, there were clear extenuating circumstances that resulted in him withdrawing from the panel when he did. he is obviously a lad who is putting his professional career ahead of an amateur game, which cant be dismissed with the current state of this country. he obviously loves his football and i bet he only went to the trials by chance and it has escalated from there, obviously showing the talent many in kildare know he has.

i wish him all the best and would also like to see him return to kildare some day soon, a better player with a bit of experience behind him! best of luck declan!

as far as i know he discussed it with Geezer and he even has his blessing, geezer told him that if he couldnt commit to Kildare, he would prefer to see him play competitive high standard football with Derry and continue developing than not play any football at all....

I dont believe its small minded LoP but your entitled to your opinion.
I dont wish him any bad luck, i hope he enjoys his football. I dont want him to be successful with Derry because that will mean Derry being successful, they are in our division this year.

I dont understand the mindset in being willing to play for another county when you have already played for your own and could very well still be.

He could play football in Derry,Antrim or indeed Tyrone whilst in Coleraine at a very high level too might i add, higher than intermediate with Rathangan and still actually be available for selection with Kildare.

Remember he's not in College all year round. And McGeeney I'm sure knows the northern football scene better than anyone and could have tabs on him.

He could easily have been called into the squad later in the year. This way he's more or less making himself unavailable for Kildare again.
Thats just my take on it.

I love the way guys who probably have never had to make huge sacrifices or massive commitments criticise some1 else for not travelling from Derry to Kildare two or three times a week! Hilarious. These guys wouldn't do it either you can be sure.
Are you seriously suggesting he make that round trip a couple of evenings a week!!?? Kildare train 4 times during the week so even if he came down twice he would be missing 50% of sessions. When he is there he will be exhausted and not worth a damn. There is no way he would get game time ahead of lads who are training 4 times a week and also lads on the junior panel who are doing the same in the off-chance they get a call up. Brennan would end up playing no football at all and be fed up and washed up by the time his course is finished. At least this way there is a chance he could play for Kildare in the future having plenty of top class football under his belt. Anyway its not like we desperatly need him, we have plenty of good backs. Good luck to the lad he has ambition, he could have walked away from football for good like so many others.

Instead of going of on one Oracle, maybe you should read my last post in its entirety.

Well Fionn you still seem to be saying in your last post that he could still travel up and down to kildare which is a ludicrous statement. For a guy that spends all his time posting on forums I find it hard that you'd have the time to work never mind commute from Derry to Kildare.

fionnmccool wrote:

He could play football in Derry,Antrim or indeed Tyrone whilst in Coleraine at a very high level too might i add, higher than intermediate with Rathangan and still actually be available for selection with Kildare.

Remember he's not in College all year round. And McGeeney I'm sure knows the northern football scene better than anyone and could have tabs on him.

He could easily have been called into the squad later in the year. This way he's more or less making himself unavailable for Kildare again.
Thats just my take on it.

This isn't suggesting that he should travel up and down from Coleraine. The Opposite actually.
We're not all lucky to be employed like you chopper, at least i'm posting on my own time and not my employers.

fionnmccool wrote:

agree with tommy on this one here. Also with the way he put it.

Shane McCormack was able to commute from his studies in Scotland to train with Kildare last year and his committment was rewarded with the No1 jersey for the championship.

Your better off without someone who not fully committed to the cause because when the chips are down they will be the first to go hiding.

If he's with Derry come our League meeting it should be interesting.
I dont wish him any bad luck, but i certainly dont want him to be sucessful with Derry.

Karl O'Dwyer? Brian Lacey? Bryan Murphy? The only '98 Kildare people would be talking about but for these three who showed such 'lack of commitment to their native counties' (paraphrasing you there) would be the the rising... you can't have it every way.

My point on Brennan is that it proves 'exams' were a bullshit excuse for him pulling out of the squad last year... terrible pity he spat the dummy cos he'd probably have been in the team last year and would be a big addition, a very talented player. But he's entitled to his decision.

He is NOT, however, on the McKenna Cup squad, he played in a few trial matches. I would say at his best though, he'd go close to their team.

explain how 'exams' were a bullshit excuse exactly??

lads there is far more to life than gaa. where will gaa get you in 10 years time when your career is over and you have no job?

Loads of Pints wrote:

explain how 'exams' were a bullshit excuse exactly??

lads there is far more to life than gaa. where will gaa get you in 10 years time when your career is over and you have no job?

When I said 'exams', I should actually have said 'studies'.... the same 'studies' which are now bringing him to Derry but don't for some reason preclude him from playing inter-county up there....

prob easier to travel to derry instead of taken half the day to come down to kildare....paul grimleys reason

I did Fionn, but I feel he would be wasting his tme trying to break into the team come June when his college finishes. I know Eoin Flats did it but he is prob the exception. You couldn't have lads just coming in to play championship every year! Why would the other lads burst their asses all year long just to give their place to some1 else once the summer comes. I presume he's in college for 3/4 years so thats just not a runner if you think for more than 5 seconds about it.