Kildare senior panel 2014

Well its a week since Jason Ryan has been ratified,
Hopefully we can look forward to a good 2014 for the lillies with that in mind, what is your realistic expectations for Kildare seniors in 2014?
My expectations.
For Kildare to have a certain style of play/ system and to stick with it sort out the defence, tackling and pace.
For Kildare to have a good league and remain in division 1 in 2014,
try new lads out but by the time league is finishing up and championship comes round would like to see a settled starting 15.
Last but not least to beat Louth/Westmeath and Meath/Carlow (hopefully in croker) to reach a Leinster final for the first time in 5 years.
I think that would be a very good year for Kildare in year 1 of Jason Ryan's management.

Actually agree with all of that Whiteknight! Its ambitious but achievable I reckon with a new setup. Just going on what the county final threw up I would think Barry Coffey, Adam Tyrell and Chris Healy would be worth a call up for the O'Byrne Cup. All are young enough and have pace and skill.

Holy god but I would agree with all of that Whiteknight. Didn't see the county final but certainly sounds like young Tyrell can kick a point. I'd say Healy might be a bit raw to step up just yet to senior but no harm to try him in the O'Byrne Cup.

One thing I would add: I'd really prioritise the spine of the team - one could argue that none of those with the possible exception of goalkeeper are settled. Chalky can help a lot with that if he play like he started 2013. And I'd love to see Daryl get a run from January to get himself really fit.

I agree with you as well Whiteknight. If all those things on the wishlist came true, it would be a very good year for Kildare.

I think the form of our senior players will have a big bearing on how we do next year. For whatever reason, the likes of Mick Foley, Emmet, Leper, Daryl and Paudie were not at their best this year. It's asking too much of our young players to be the main men when they are only getting used to this level so we need the senior lads to lead the way. Hopefully a new training regime will trigger a return to form for these players as we need them back in top form.

I'd see how Barry Coffey and Chris Healy get on with the Under-21's next year because they mightn't be physically ready for the senior team yet. I think Adam Tyrell is ready and would like to see him given a chance.

Had a pop over to the res Dub site. One of the post claims we are playing them on
07/03/2014 Kildare - Croke Park (Friday night lights)
Does anyone know when the full fixtures will be confirmed?

Just after seen this on kfm twitter.
League fixtures 2014 Unconfirmed:
Sun 2nd Feb Home to Mayo
Sun 9th Feb  Away to Cork
Sun 2nd Mar  Home to Tyrone
Fri  7th Mar   Away to Dublin
Sun Mar 16th Home to Kerry
Sun Mar 30th Away To Derry
Sun Apr 6th   Home to Westmeath

Friday night could be rough for people, off work at 5 or 6, kids in from school, get dinner etc and then be in Dublin for what would presumably be a 7 or 8 throw in? They tried to push for it in last years league and again brought it up as a possibility for a championship match too. I suppose the Carlow - Laois match proved it will be done even if players come out against it, player welfare and all that...

Mayo up first in Newbridge anyways on the first Sunday in February, hopefully we hit the ground running like we last year, could be the perfect time to play them too. Would like to optimistically assume that as we've a home match up first it might mean we've four home games (again).

Realistically I think maintaining Division One status would be a very good start to the year, I wouldn't exactly rate Westmeath and Derry as being better than Donegal and Down so I can't see us being the favourites to get relegated again. We stayed up comfortably last year and managed to give a lot of young players game time along the way, the likes of Kelly and Flynn carried us over the line in the games against Donegal and Cork, hopefully next year we see some of the more established players who were off form this year step back up to the plate.

Even with a new management team there's no reason to not believe we can stay up again.

Regarding the championship I feel we have to take each game on there merits. This year it was disappointing obviously to go out in the qualifiers, but when it's put into perspective we lost to the All Ireland champions and then lost to a team that came close to reaching the final.

If we can come out of the league still a Division One team with a settled midfield and half back line then we should be in a good position for the Westmeath / Louth game.

whiteknight wrote:

Just after seen this on kfm twitter.
League fixtures 2014 Unconfirmed:
Sun 2nd Feb  Home to Mayo
Sun 9th Feb  Away to Cork
Sun 2nd Mar  Home to Tyrone
Fri  7th Mar   Away to Dublin
Sun Mar 16th Home to Kerry
Sun Mar 30th Away To Derry
Sun Apr 6th   Home to Westmeath

Four home games which is good to see, can't remember off hand the last time we had four league games in Newbridge. Would have preferred a weekend in Tralee or Killarney to one in Derry but it's hardly the end of the world, arguably a more winnable game. Three home wins out of the four should be enough to keep us up.

Decent fixtures - really enjoyed the away trip to Cork last year. Imagine that will be moved to Sat night again. We'll have to hit the ground running and hopefully catch Mayo with an All Ireland hangover, as we've a stiff set of fixtures until we play Derry and Westmeath.

whiteknight wrote:

Had a pop over to the res Dub site. One of the post claims we are playing them on
07/03/2014 Kildare - Croke Park (Friday night lights)
Does anyone know when the full fixtures will be confirmed?

Just after seen this on kfm twitter.
League fixtures 2014 Unconfirmed:
Sun 2nd Feb  Home to Mayo
Sun 9th Feb  Away to Cork
Sun 2nd Mar  Home to Tyrone
Fri  7th Mar   Away to Dublin
Sun Mar 16th Home to Kerry
Sun Mar 30th Away To Derry
Sun Apr 6th   Home to Westmeath

Doesn't look right - we had home games against Kerry and Tyrone this year - surely they try and rotate home and away as best they can. We were also away to Cork this year. Also we had 4 home games this year but gave up home advantage for the Donegal and Dublin games to play both in Croker. Should that not mean we would have 3 home next year, again allowing for the fact that it's an unbalanced draw (7 games and 2 new teams)?

If draw is confirmed, it will be important to start well as the middle 3 games will be tough with the stronger teams usually building momentum at that stage. Will probably need results against Derry/Westmeath at the death.

I read on the Res site apparently it may have something to do with a new start of a league cycle whereby Kildare will swap home and away with these teams next year and last year fixtures has no bearing on this new two year cycle.

whiteknight wrote:

Sun 2nd Feb  Home to Mayo
Sun 9th Feb  Away to Cork
Sun 2nd Mar  Home to Tyrone
Fri  7th Mar   Away to Dublin
Sun Mar 16th Home to Kerry
Sun Mar 30th Away To Derry
Sun Apr 6th   Home to Westmeath

If those fixtures are correct, it should give us a decent chance of doing well in the league next year. The 4 home games are an advantage, hopefully we can play all these games in Newbridge. The first game against Mayo will be crucial and it might be a good time to play them. The next 4 fixtures look tough so it's important we get points on the board early.

Maybe the Likes of Healy, Luke Flynn & Fitzpatrick should be looked at with the 21s first, as was Kelly and Brophy first of all after coming out of Minor.. Its a big step up.

SeamusMurphy wrote:

Maybe the Likes of Healy, Luke Flynn & Fitzpatrick should be looked at with the 21s first, as was Kelly and Brophy first of all after coming out of Minor.. Its a big step up.

its a major step up,,kelly and brophy are way ahead of these 3 lads,good footballers in there own age group, healy and fitzpatrick man marked in AL S/F and didnt get a kick at it, 21s in a couple of yrs maybe but not senior now

I agree, But have shown to be good outside of their own age group also with their Senior Clubs.. But definitly Lads for the future.. But for now left with the 21s..
Was very impressed with Coffey and Tyrell.. Are they u21 also?

Coffey will be under 21next year not sure about the other chap

Am hearing good things about jason ryan he is setting up his own systems and is going to be his own man going forward with a clean slate, believe there is going to be a full set of trials with each club being giving the opportunity to put players forward, he has been talking to club managers this week.

According to match programme Tyrell is 21 so overage next year.

Ok so.. But that meant He was underage this Year I assume ?, but wasnt involved with the u21 Team ???

I have to say in this case playing with the club team this year improved him significantly. Sometimes young lads get lost in the underage county set-up and can go backward if things don't work out for them.

In all fairness Johnny Doyle was never involved underage Peter kelly showed form in the college competitions and got the call up,so doesnt really matter if Tyrell was not involved with the under
21's. Big difference in inter county and club games though but I think he showed he has a bit of class and deserves a call if he is interested in commiting to inter county.

Some players are late developers and Adam might be one of those. If he was 25 or 26, then you'd be wondering where he was until now, but he's still only 21 and has time on his side. I'm sure he will get a chance with Kildare next year if he wants it and after that it's up to him.

Yea has made contact with our manager looking for lads to come in for trials which makes a change, there seems to be an air of engaging with the clubs about the place at the moment, something that was lacking for the last while

tyl, don't agree with you about the AI minor semi, while few Kildare players showed up, Healy most definitely did. He was the only Kildare forward that showed any desire

ballyboy wrote:

there seems to be an air of engaging with the clubs about the place at the moment, something that was lacking for the last while

That is encouraging to hear. Hopefully it continues.

On a side note I see Jack Sheedy has been appointed Longford manager,We'll see now will he fair any better with the 'limited resources'.

Personally, I would rather see a smaller panel next year than what we've seen in the last few years. Too many lads on the panel that weretraining away without getting any game time. Think this is counter productive for the players, they'd be better offtrying to impress on the club front and getting valuable competitive action.

Here's an article in the Nationalist about Jason Ryan. Looks like he will be busy trying to look for new additions to the panel over the next month or so.

http://www.kildare-nationalist.ie/2013/10/16/ryan-show-just-goes/