Welcome home Feely

Transfer Deadline Day = great news.

http://www.newport-county.co.uk/news/article/kevin-feely-mutually-agrees-to-terminate-contract-2661881.aspx

Potentially great news depending on what it is he wants to do. Our next manager whoever that might be could possibly be the luckiest Kildare manager ever if a few more dominoes fall into place

Wonder if P Brophy is feeling a touch of homesickness ...

Jason Ryan is sitting somewhere in a dark room muttering to himself at this news. If he can and wants to he would be a massive boost to the County and of course Athy.

I won't get myself to excited until he says he wants to play GAA again.

Wants to go to college so let's see whether he wants to play GAA at county level which is of course a huge commitment. Brave decision by the lad and I wish him well whatever he does.

Will be a big attraction for League of Ireland clubs who will be able to pay him to play. He would have to really want to play for Kildare to turn down soccer. Athy could certainly do with his presence in the midddle of the field, they haven't been the same since he left.

This thread amuses me. I don't know anything about Kevin Feeley except he was an excellent minor and i spoke to him one day in Athy GAA clubhouse where he was working behind the bar. He seemed a nice quiet chap. But here's my problem we haved talked kevin up as if he's the next Dermot Earely which is very unfair to him. He's a huge amount to learn and a huge amount to developing to do. Don't get me wrong im not in anyway being negative towards him but i think he should be left to develop into the player we all hope he can be. Just an opinion.

jim wrote:

This thread amuses me. I don't know anything about Kevin Feeley except he was an excellent minor and i spoke to him one day in Athy GAA clubhouse where he was working behind the bar.  He seemed a nice quiet chap. But here's my problem we haved talked kevin up as if he's the next Dermot Earely  which is very unfair to him. He's a huge amount to learn and a huge amount to developing to do. Don't get me wrong im not in anyway being negative towards him but i think he should be left to develop into the player we all hope he can be. Just an opinion.

.. and how does this thread prevent him doing this.
He played minor and U21 with Kildare and shown a huge amount of potential - if he were to throw his oar back in with Kildare he would a fine addition to any setup.
The only mention of Dermot Early in this thread has been by you.

Edit: actually may be wrong about him playing U21 for Kildare, not sure TBH

Quote :

From that article:
.......

The club will retain Kevin's registration, as part of the termination agreement.

..........

"The decision I made was a completely personal one, based on where I wanted to go with my life, at the moment I don't think football is where I want my future to be."

I don't like speculating about people personal lives on here, but given we have an article with direct quotes from him, I'll make an exception. This seems significant to me. If Newport County retains his registration, I would have thought that that means he can't just rock up to any LOI club and play for them? And the quote from him would indicate that he doesn't even want to do that or perhaps ever again. Hopefully he'll be playing Gaelic football so.

To be fair to jim, I think he's referring to the general tendency to turn young lads into gods (the list is endless). But as it happens, I always though Feely was the best of them. Of course he has missed so much development now, it may be too late. Remember Pierre Ennis? But would certainly love to see him have a crack. With Newport retaining his registration, that suggests maybe Feely himself called it quits rather than being let go.

Brophy has only had one year of his two years so I'd say you'll have to wait for him. Same with Sean Hurley.

Back to DCU on the scholarship programme there I’d imagine. If he wants to keep playing football he’d get back in with a LOI club no problem. Shams and Pat’s are the only two around Dublin who could offer him any sort of wage anyways so both of them will probably be in for him.

Sure when he left Charlton somebody was on here saying that Dublin clubs were interested in him, Ballymun Kickhams were meant to be sniffing around. Anything is better than playing under Terry Butcher anyways I’d say.

If he wants to give up football and focus on GAA then great.

flourman wrote:

jim wrote:

This thread amuses me. I don't know anything about Kevin Feeley except he was an excellent minor and i spoke to him one day in Athy GAA clubhouse where he was working behind the bar.  He seemed a nice quiet chap. But here's my problem we haved talked kevin up as if he's the next Dermot Earely  which is very unfair to him. He's a huge amount to learn and a huge amount to developing to do. Don't get me wrong im not in anyway being negative towards him but i think he should be left to develop into the player we all hope he can be. Just an opinion.

.. and how does this thread prevent him doing this.
He played minor and U21 with Kildare and shown a huge amount of potential - if he were to throw his oar back in with Kildare he would a fine addition to any setup.
The only mention of Dermot Early in this thread has been by you.

Edit: actually may be wrong about him playing U21 for Kildare, not sure TBH

Definitely played against Offaly in 2012 and was our best player scoring 3 points.
No one expects him to walk onto the Kildare team but if he was interested he would be a great addition for the new manager. After its up to him.

Flourman i think there was a similar thread a while back about Kevin im sure i could find it but im not going to look. But as Ogie stays there's a long list of very good minor and U/21 players that for whatever reason just didn't make it and Feeley at this moment in time is on that list. That's not in anyway being negative towards him but that's the reality of the situation.

jim wrote:

Flourman i think there was a similar thread a while back about Kevin im sure i could find it but im not going to look. But as Ogie stays there's a long list of  very good minor and U/21 players that for whatever reason just didn't  make it and Feeley at this moment in time is on that list. That's not in anyway being negative towards him but that's the reality of the situation.

The big point really is that he hasn't played football at any decent level consistently for a number of years. I have no doubt about his talent, thought he was the best of them. Actually, the best underage footballer I've seen since Maurice Fitz played minor and almost single-handedly beat Cork in a Munster final. But he hasn't played in such a long time. He has missed out on a lot of development in terms of understanding the game. To the extent that he probably won't reach the peak of what his potential suggested he could. But if he got to 75% of it, he'd be a shoo-in for Kildare anyway.

Fingers crossed.

Ogie wrote:

jim wrote:

Flourman i think there was a similar thread a while back about Kevin im sure i could find it but im not going to look. But as Ogie stays there's a long list of  very good minor and U/21 players that for whatever reason just didn't  make it and Feeley at this moment in time is on that list. That's not in anyway being negative towards him but that's the reality of the situation.

The big point really is that he hasn't played football at any decent level consistently for a number of years. I have no doubt about his talent, thought he was the best of them. Actually, the best underage footballer I've seen since Maurice Fitz played minor and almost single-handedly beat Cork in a Munster final. But he hasn't played in such a long time. He has missed out on a lot of development in terms of understanding the game. To the extent that he probably won't reach the peak of what his potential suggested he could. But if he got to 75% of it, he'd be a shoo-in for Kildare anyway.

Fingers crossed.

That's a fair point but I saw him play centre forward for Athy in a league game last year and he was still very impressive even though he couldn't have played much GAA in the run up to it. A great natural athlete with good ball skills.

With the current athy set up .The negative approach. I don't think it is enticing to come back to.

People nay-saying on here are really the glass-half-empty types. I can't see how this is anything but good news and if you'd said to me that we could have Feely, Hurley or Brophy back he would have been my first choice, no offence to the other two. Story I read says he's coming back for third-level education so I'd say it's a safe bet he's going to play football. The worst thing that can happen is he doesn't make it to inter-county level. If so we have only lost something we didn't expect to have in the first place.

All going well though, I don't see why he shouldn't make it. Seen him for the minors in 2010 and he was the outstanding player for that Kildare team, even more so than Hurley and Cribbin. Good fielder and has all the skills. As for him missing too much, jaysus, he's only just turned 23. I mean it's not ideal to miss a few seasons but he's hardly an old man and he's been playing high-level sport, it's not as if he's been away on the p*ss. Hope he gives it his all and my bet is that he'll be in contention for game time next summer and an important player for us by the 2017 championship if he sticks with it.

Ohtoohtobe wrote:

People nay-saying on here are really the glass-half-empty types. I can't see how this is anything but good news and if you'd said to me that we could have Feely, Hurley or Brophy back he would have been my first choice, no offence to the other two. Story I read says he's coming back for third-level education so I'd say it's a safe bet he's going to play football. The worst thing that can happen is he doesn't make it to inter-county level. If so we have only lost something we didn't expect to have in the first place.

All going well though, I don't see why he shouldn't make it. Seen him for the minors in 2010 and he was the outstanding player for that Kildare team, even more so than Hurley and Cribbin. Good fielder and has all the skills. As for him missing too much, jaysus, he's only just turned 23. I mean it's not ideal to miss a few seasons but he's hardly an old man and he's been playing high-level sport, it's not as if he's been away on the p*ss. Hope he gives it his all and my bet is that he'll be in contention for game time next summer and an important player for us by the 2017 championship if he sticks with it.

Agree fully with the above. Can only be a positive to have a guy like this back potentially available to us, huge in fact.

Like I said, the best I've seen underage since Maurice Fitz. Was just adding a note of caution. It's not his age but the development time he's missed. He is different to Pierre Ennis in that he hasn't had the injury profile and is physically more suited to the senior inter-county game... I would agree with all you say though O2, of course it's a positive story. Just that I know people will be laying into him in 6-12 months time if he's not the second coming of the Lord.

Ogie wrote:

Like I said, the best I've seen underage since Maurice Fitz. Was just adding a note of caution. It's not his age but the development time he's missed. He is different to Pierre Ennis in that he hasn't had the injury profile and is physically more suited to the senior inter-county game... I would agree with all you say though O2, of course it's a positive story. Just that I know people will be laying into him in 6-12 months time if he's not the second coming of the Lord.

The other note of caution is that it took Paul Cribbin a year after he came back to make the breakthrough on the senior inter county scene.

NEWPORT County AFC manager Terry Butcher has revealed that defender Kevin Feely dropped the ‘massive bombshell’ that he wanted to leave the club almost two weeks ago, writes Andrew Penman.

Club and player have mutually agreed to cancel Feely’s contract to enable him to return to full-time education and play Gaelic football at home in Ireland.

Butcher admitted that the request, shortly after the defeat at Hartlepool on August 18, came as a shock but says the pair have parted on good terms.

“It was a massive surprise, a real bombshell when he came in and told us 11 or 12 days ago,” said the Exiles boss.

“But he’s an honest guy. You could see he wasn’t putting it on.

“He wasn’t trying to get somewhere else – he’s not like that.

“He’s a lovely guy and we wish him every success. I’ve never watched Gaelic football before but if Kevin’s playing then I’ll certainly tune in to see how he does.

“He leaves on Thursday and the lads want to give him a good send off.”

http://www.freepressseries.co.uk/sport/newport_county/13641217.Kevin_Feely_s_departure_a__massive_bombshell_/

Four magic words in that "and play Gaelic Football"...

This is great news. Wish him well however it works out Kildare-wise.

Ogie wrote:

Like I said, the best I've seen underage since Maurice Fitz. Was just adding a note of caution. It's not his age but the development time he's missed. He is different to Pierre Ennis in that he hasn't had the injury profile and is physically more suited to the senior inter-county game... I would agree with all you say though O2, of course it's a positive story. Just that I know people will be laying into him in 6-12 months time if he's not the second coming of the Lord.

Yeah that's the key Ogie, people have to realise that it takes time. As I said on another thread we only really started to consistently see what Niall Kelly can do this year, two years on from his debut and as BoW points out it was a similar story with Cribbin.

Let him go back to Athy and see how he gets on. Much easier to settle in at club level even if Athy might have only one game left this season. With a new manager and maybe a lot of new players coming in Div 3 might not be a bad place for him to start.
Now if only Brophy would feel the same!

Great to have him back looking interested in playing GAA again. I feel his decision was influenced by the success of his younger brother Rory had with the Kildare minors this year. I know he attended all the minor games and some of the training sessions. Cant beat the lure the GAA can have on a young lad when he's away from home.....