'They're going mad online' - Doyle hopes good times returning for Kildare
In reality, the opposite may very well be the case. John Galvin may have stated earlier this week that he only played at Croke Park three times in his 15-year Limerick career, but the present team has already played there twice in 2025, and won both times.
For some of the Limerick players, their only Croke Park experiences will have been winning ones.
Kildare, meanwhile, have found GAA HQ to be a house of horrors. Prior to their laboured Tailteann Cup semi-final defeat of Fermanagh, they'd lost their previous five games at Croke Park, including this season's Division 3 final against Offaly.
Stretch it out a little longer and they'd lost 20 of the 27 Championship games they'd played there since the 2010 All-Ireland semi-final against Down.
As a player and then selector under Glenn Ryan between 2022 and 2024, Johnny Doyle experienced the Croke Park curs, though the AIB GAA ambassador said it should never be used as an excuse.
"It's not something I'd have a huge fear of," said Doyle of the Croke Park factor. "I know it has been said about Croke Park, you know, a half empty stadium and all these different things come into it when you lose, people look for every excuse but I certainly would never have bought into that.
"As a player, I loved playing at Croke Park and it didn't really matter whether it was full or not. Obviously when it's full there's a huge atmosphere but that brings its own pressure. Look, the two teams go in under the same conditions and one will win.
"So I wouldn't be using that. I wouldn't have any fear about the Croke Park element. It just doesn't wash with me at all.
"It's the best stadium, it's the best surface, so you should be able to produce your best football in those conditions and if we come out beaten this weekend, I don't think it'll be down to Croke Park. Others may but I certainly won't, and I wouldn't use it as an excuse."
Likewise, Doyle doesn't have much time for the narrative that Kildare should be able to take a Division 4 team like Limerick, albeit the Division 4 champions this year, in their stride.
"They'll beat them when they've them beaten and they won't beat them before that," insisted the Allenwood man. "We've been guilty, teams I've been on myself in the past, when people say, 'Oh you should win that' and we don't win and that's the consistency we probably lacked over the last few years."
After a difficult few years under Ryan, when Kildare were twice relegated, their large support base craves success. Doyle acknowledged the tough times, particularly after the losses.
"I remember one game we lost, after the Laois game when they beat us in the Tailteann Cup last year, and my sister ringing me saying, 'Are you okay?'" said Doyle. "I said, 'Yeah, I'm okay, I'm disappointed'. And she was like, 'It's just that they're going mad online'.
"But that's part of it, we just have to accept that but, yeah, it was tough. It was tough for everybody."
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