Ideas on improving the entire county set up.

We’ve all had our say on the current senior team. To be honest I think almost everyone has made valid points. But they’re dead ducks for multiple reasons. The problems go far deeper than the senior team.

Could we pull together a few positive and progressive ideas to improve the county and get a feel good factor behind our teams? Or are we doomed to this current shit storm?

I posted this on the national league page but feel it gets lost in between arguments about which lump of Brady’s ham should play midfield or not.



The big thing I notice between north and south and as I’ve said it before, little to no effort is being made by Kildare centrally to involve the large new population in the north.

That in short is the divide. The vast majority of the large population you’ll all read about, live in the north of the county and they have no interest in following Kildare. An untapped resource and we’re going nowhere until we get them on board.

The current set up, as with previous set ups, have made no effort to bring these new Kildare people into the fold. Hence the reason why you’ll see more Mayo jerseys than Kildare ones about the place.

The current set up simply don’t care about them, the new people know that too…. So until that changes, you can write off the majority of the population of the entire county. We’re cutting off our noses to spite our faces.

A simple thing that I’ve suggested to that board previously, would be to charter buses, one a club to bring under an u14 team or something to Newbridge for free. Give them a few flags, or let them meet players after the match and send them home happy with their experiences.

The next time a few of those kids might ask their parents to bring them to Newbridge instead of a 3 hour drive to Castlebar.

Needless to say, I got no reply to the idea. I think they were planning a sponsored walk .

I think a regional competition would be a great way of improving the overall standard of football in the county.

Plenty of very good footballers out there playing with junior and intermediate teams, who are not getting exposure to the highest levels of football in the county. The step up for junior and intermediate players to the county team is becoming nearly an impossible one to make. We've had very few lads from intermediate clubs in the last couple of years and God knows when we last had a junior player.

Not saying it's the solution to all our problems but exposing more players to the highest levels of football we have in the county can't be a bad thing?

I think if you look at North Kildare and people will have digs at JTB, but it's a club from half a rural parish who should be lauded. They have big names but then as soon as there are any injuries it's serious bother. They are in the same parish as the Cloghs who are also doing well.

Then you have/ had Kevins, Carbury and more with a small pick at senior over the years while other bigger populations struggle.

In the North of the county a lot of people are not originally from the area, so they may not have as many natural ties and need to be brought in. That's a bigger job than in the more rural spots who have longer familial ties to clubs and the GAA overall.

Things like open training sessions around the county would be a good help. The Ireland rugby team were in Mullingar recently and pop around a lot. They also are really going after kids on social media.

It's not just a Kildare issue there as that is something the GAA needs to look at.

For Kildare getting kids to tog out is not such an issue, but hanging on and bringing them through is. But the kids are not fools and sadly the senior team are what they look at and until there is a positive spin there, we are struggling.

Can we afford to have more full time people. Can we tap into any funds to have a full time S&C that works across all the teams and also gives tips to young people for health and fitness?

A lot of our focus is on senior but we have to say that at underage we do lots right. We also have an advantage of having a University in the County plus more in Dublin so our lads can stay local for scholarships.

1 Get rid of county board
2 Get rid of management
3 Get rid of team

Did that Gilroy report ever see the light of day? If so, does anyone know what recommendations were made and what changes, if any, have been made based on the report?

Do we still have a full time paid position running the County. There was a bloke a few years back from the Army who was doing it, then left.

If we do who is it and how exactly do they earn their money. What benefit are they over let's say a a full time S&C coach.

Badger85 wrote:

Did that Gilroy report ever see the light of day? If so, does anyone know what recommendations were made and what changes, if any, have been made based on the report?

As far as I know his report recommended coiste na nog

Rex wrote:

Do we still have a full time paid position running the County. There was a bloke a few years back from the Army who was doing it, then left.

If we do who is it and how exactly do they earn their money. What benefit are they over let's say a a full time S&C coach.

Daragh kirwans dad. Cormac. Seemed like he knew what he was at. I think Johnny Doyle did it also but I could be wrong on that. Not sure if the position is still active

Botch wrote:

Rex wrote:

Do we still have a full time paid position running the County. There was a bloke a few years back from the Army who was doing it, then left.

If we do who is it and how exactly do they earn their money. What benefit are they over let's say a a full time S&C coach.

Daragh kirwans dad. Cormac. Seemed like he knew what he was at. I think Johnny Doyle did it also but I could be wrong on that. Not sure if the position is still active

According to the committee section of Kildare GAA'S website the Operations manager is Louise Conlon.

As I said does this job provide more value than a full time S&C coach.

I don't know maybe the position is invaluable, I just never hear anything about it. The one thing I would expect is that the "Operations manager" would actually direct operations of Kildare GAA.

I have been lucky enough to have been involved in a number teams from surrounding county's over the years, 4 counties in all and a large number of years involved here in Kildare.

The one thing I will say is that the leagues and championships in Kildare, football and hurling, the fixtures, results, tables, referees showing up etc, it's all ran excellently.

Bit unfair to knock everyone over one team's performances.

I'm not knocking anyone. Just wondered what their remit is. You mentioned fixtures, does she look after fixtures, you mentioned results tables and referees. Is she in-charge of that.

That's my point what does the role entail. I've never read or heard anything from her which I find strange as she is operations manager.

Flamingo wrote:

Can we afford to have more full time people. Can we tap into any funds to have a full time S&C that works across all the teams and also gives tips to young people for health and fitness?

I think this is a no-brainer. It's not just the likes of Dublin, Kerry or Mayo who have full-time S&C coaches, the likes of Cavan and Meath have them as well.

We should be looking for the best person available, preferably someone with a background in professional sport.

An obvious untapped source of money would be to stream our county championship games.
Particularly now that the games are in Hawkfield, surely there's a huge demand there.

Streaming the club games makes total sense. Almost every senior championship is held centrally so camera positions would be easy to set up. Plus there’s Kildare people all over Ireland and the world that would gladly pay 5/10 euro to watch their home clubs. We’ve a media partner… can’t figure out why if we don’t get media content. We tried it a bit with Cian O’Neill but not since.

The fact that we don’t have a full S&C is a bit “Kildare” alright.

I still think we need to be really pushing out into the clubs, bringing new supporters to the games. They’re the future people who can fund a full time S&C, or improvements to county grounds or training centres.

It’s all about money and how we get it in and how we use it. To get it in you need more supporters willing to pay. More club Kildare patrons. To use it better we need better people in positions of authority to spend it wisely.

One person comes to mind in that regard. Andrew McLoughlin. Always speaks well. He’s very enthusiastic about Kildare and has a financial background. (Even if he’s south Kildare )

I don’t know if he’d be interested or has the time, but it’s people like him that we need in decision making positions. Our own John Costello.

Other counties have shown that streams bring in revenue. Put the live games out and then clip out great scores for social and YouTube etc.

Just get Clubber in! Not everyone can get to Newbridge and many neutrals would pay up.

I don’t understand why streaming doesn’t happen, Wicklow and numerous of other smaller counties do it. Such a handy way to bring in revenue.

LillieLad wrote:

I don’t understand why streaming doesn’t happen, Wicklow and numerous of other smaller counties do it. Such a handy way to bring in revenue.

Crazy in this day and age. Minimal set up fee. Wouldn't it be a nice perk to gain club Kildare membership.

Join and get free access to all games streamed.

Rex wrote:

LillieLad wrote:

I don’t understand why streaming doesn’t happen, Wicklow and numerous of other smaller counties do it. Such a handy way to bring in revenue.

Crazy in this day and age. Minimal set up fee. Wouldn't it be a nice perk to gain club Kildare membership.

Join and get free access to all games streamed.

Along with the beanie hat and car sticker

Neither of which have been offered this year.

I’m not so sure where this idea that North Kildare has some detachment from the county team comes from. 12 of the 15 players that ended the game on Sunday are from north Kildare clubs and 2/3rds of the under 20 panel along with the manager are from north Kildare.

Am I missing something?

Twentyeight wrote:

I’m not so sure where this idea that North Kildare has some detachment from the county team comes from. 12 of the 15 players that ended the game on Sunday are from north Kildare clubs and 2/3rds of the under 20 panel along with the manager are from north Kildare.

Am I missing something?

Yes. The vast population up there that wouldn’t consider going to a Kildare match if they played it in their front garden.

We need more and more people involved. It generates funds to run the county and will ultimately build us up if we keep them. That’ll require good management though.

Sponsored walks, race days and corporate lunches won’t win over a fella who’s more interested in travelling 3+ hours to bring his kids to a Mayo match.

The population of Kildare is just short of 250k.

100k of that according to the last census is towns north of Naas (including Naas). That’s the area of the county that’s growing fastest. That’s borne out in the figures.

Most of the new population couldn’t tell you where Conleth’s is, never mind that it’s being redeveloped.

Can I just jump in and say within that. We made a big deal of painting Tullamore white a few years ago and F all showed up for that Louth game. On the train back all the north Kildare fans had to go to Dublin and then get another train or bus home.

All the neutral games and even Carlow is bringing people south.

The vast majority of all of Kildare wouldn’t consider going to a Kildare match. I was in Carlow on Sunday and the attendance was 3,800. If you are being very generous you would say there was about 2,000 Kildare fans there, in all likelihood it was much lower.

The raw population is a nonsense. A large part of the over 35 population in the north of county arent from Kildare so why would they attend Kildare matches.

At underage level I don’t believe a south Kildare club has won a under 20 or minor championship in at least 5 years (very difficult to verify because the info is nowhere to be found, which is part of problem, the Kildare GAA website admin can’t even stretch to having a simple roll of honour for clubs). But that does fly in the face of the idea that youngsters in north Kildare have no interest in football.

I used to work with some lads who were not GAA people but their kids were in with Cuala so they got involved. It's mad but they couldn't name half the senior team.

It's connecting all the dots and I know people slag about social media and YouTube BUT for kids that is where it's at now. Kids now have all the FIFA apps and watch clips. There is so much content.

It does all lead to revenue with jersey sails. Sport is family viewing now too and kids will bring the rest of the family.

Twentyeight wrote:

The vast majority of all of Kildare wouldn’t consider going to a Kildare match. I was in Carlow on Sunday and the attendance was 3,800. If you are being very generous you would say there was about 2,000 Kildare fans there, in all likelihood it was much lower.

The raw population is a nonsense. A large part of the over 35 population in the north of county arent from Kildare so why would they attend Kildare matches.

At underage level I don’t believe a south Kildare club has won a under 20 or minor championship in at least 5 years (very difficult to verify because the info is nowhere to be found, which is part of problem, the Kildare GAA website admin can’t even stretch to having a simple roll of honour for clubs). But that does fly in the face of the idea that youngsters in north Kildare have no interest in football.

It’s not that they’ve no interest in football, they’ve huge interest. They just couldn’t care less about Kildare.

You have to see it to want to be it. They don’t go to matches, their heroes are Mayo, Dublin, Galway etc footballers. They love their clubs, just not their county.

The aim must be to pull them into following Kildare.

Badger85 wrote:

Twentyeight wrote:

The vast majority of all of Kildare wouldn’t consider going to a Kildare match. I was in Carlow on Sunday and the attendance was 3,800. If you are being very generous you would say there was about 2,000 Kildare fans there, in all likelihood it was much lower.

The raw population is a nonsense. A large part of the over 35 population in the north of county arent from Kildare so why would they attend Kildare matches.

At underage level I don’t believe a south Kildare club has won a under 20 or minor championship in at least 5 years (very difficult to verify because the info is nowhere to be found, which is part of problem, the Kildare GAA website admin can’t even stretch to having a simple roll of honour for clubs). But that does fly in the face of the idea that youngsters in north Kildare have no interest in football.

It’s not that they’ve no interest in football, they’ve huge interest. They just couldn’t care less about Kildare.

You have to see it to want to be it. They don’t go to matches, their heroes are Mayo, Dublin, Galway etc footballers. They love their clubs, just not their county.

The aim must be to pull them into following Kildare.

I don’t think that’s true, wasn’t there a big piece last year about Alex Beirne before Kildare played Roscommon on how his dad is from Castlerea and is a big Roscommon GAA fan. That didn’t put off Alex Beirne becoming a Kildare player.

Our captain Mick O Grady’s parents are from Dublin and Kerry as well. I’d say you’d be hard pressed to find many north Kildare county players with both parents from Kildare so it doesn’t seem to be much of an issue.

If what you’re saying was actually a thing you’d have lads who grew up and played club football in Kildare declaring for other counties but that hasn’t happened.

Which club players specifically have a huge interest in football but no interest in Kildare?

Being from Leixlip I can speak on behalf of a place that was once a small hardcore Kildare rural village and became diluted with people from all over. In my father's birth year 1957, Leixlip had 900 people. By his 20's (1970's) the population was 9,000. It has fluctuated at around 15000-16000 since 1991.

In the generation above, (my grandfather's generation) Leixlip in it's rural state was an entirely 'native' Kildare population. A small GAA club with one local hero from the 1920's & 1930's Kildare Senior Football Team, Matt Goff. A community united behind one club and county. Fast forward then to the population explosion of the 1970s, people mainly from Mayo, Galway, Roscommon (and a few Dubs) settle in and the local population and Kildare population became diluted. The blow-ins even split the local club and created their own club, Confey in 1989. Until the break through in the 1990s and the revitalisation of the Kildare Senior Football team, Kildare GAA was an after thought for these new-comers. Their children adopted to supporting Kildare, as well as the parent county in a lot of cases when the success in the 1990s came about.

So why the history lesson on demographics? I think Leixlip reflects what the rest of a lot of the large Urban areas in the County are now experiencing. In our club now, it's the grandchildren (and children) of the so-called 'settlers' that came in the 1970s, that are committing to Kildare GAA and being Kildare supporters. In a sense it has taken this second generation of people to largely separate from grandparents' counties -although it depends on the family in some cases! Obviously the county massively expanded over the last 20 years, so other urban areas are experiencing the same issue now more so than before.

How is this issue overcome? Obviously success on the field is majorly important and the biggest solution, but there are other things that could majorly help. A juvenile county supporters club that is free to join would be a start. Raffle off a full kit or two every month across the county for the kids. Have a competition where all juvenile teams are entered into a monthly draw to win a training session with a Kildare player. This could be done across all codes. The winning team could then enjoy a session with any county player. Regular contact of all of our county teams with the youth in clubs helps massively.

Having local representation on county teams helps massively. Again to look at the past in the 1970s my father said how the whole town lifted when we had John Geoghegan representing Leixlip on the Kildare team. He was a legend, from a long line of Geoghegans in the town. Later in the 1990s the aforementioned 'new generation' had Ronan Quinn as our representative on the '98 / '00 team. Ronan's parents come from the west, but he alone inspired a new generation of Kildare followers as our man playing on one of the greatest Kildare teams ever. Enda Murphy was another hero from the 'new generation' and he was such an inspiration to the youth of our club, again inspiring kids to be interested in Kildare football and not another county.