Kevin Feely: Kildare buoyed by Tailteann run after 'terrible' time
Kildare have won 11 of their 14 games under new manager Brian Flanagan and are favourites to beat Limerick in tomorrow's Tailteann Cup final, which would secure a pass to the 2026 All-Ireland SFC.
This season's games have, admittedly, been at a lower level than Kildare are used to, in Division 3 and the secondary championship.
They suffered relegation twice in three seasons under former manager Glenn Ryan, dropping out of Division 1 in 2022 and from Division 2 in 2024.
Overall, Kildare played 37 League and Championship games in Ryan's three-year spell, winning just 13 of them. In Championship terms, Ryan's teams contested 16 Championship games and won eight, bowing out of last season's Tailteann Cup at the quarter-final stage.
"It was terrible," said Feely when asked how tough that slide was. "It was so far from where we thought we were going to be. Coming off the back of our most recent Leinster final (2022), we thought that would have been the kickstart of a new age for Kildare.
"For it to go in a completely different direction was a shock and it was definitely something that was really hard to deal with. Especially as a senior player, having come from a period where it looked like we were fairly successful and getting ready to kick on, for that to turn around the way it did was really difficult. But that's in the past now hopefully."
Flanagan managed Kildare U-20 teams to All-Ireland finals in 2022 and 2023, winning the latter. A dozen players from those teams figured straight away for Flanagan in this year's league with five more from the 2018 U-20 winning team.
Feely, 32, Daniel Flynn, Mick O'Grady, David Hyland and Niall Kelly are at the other end of the experience spectrum.
"It's definitely different," said Feely of the approach this year. "That's always going to happen when you get a complete wipeout of the backroom team. It was nearly a 40 to 50 percent change in the playing group as well. It was a huge change.
"That was definitely a start in helping to get rid of that lack of confidence or that low energy feeling that carried over from last year. Certainly the enthusiasm that some of our new players and younger players have brought has definitely helped to hopefully raise the confidence within the group."
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