a day ago
Dolan bros looking to keep Lilies feelgood factor going
It will be a busy weekend in the Dolan household this weekend as three brothers make their way to Newbridge for a much-awaited double header featuring the Kildare hurlers and footballers.
Paul and James will arrive at Cedral St Conleth's Park early in the day to link up with the hurlers as they prepare to face Dublin, while brother Niall is on the senior football panel that will host Offaly in the Tailteann Cup quarter-finals.
Their father, Liam, a Tipperary native is a well-known referee within Kildare GAA circles and so the occasion will be a real family affair for the Dolan clan.
Last Sunday, Paul put in a sterling performance at half back as Kildare, who had already secured Division 1B hurling for 2026, won the Joe McDonagh Cup for the first time.
Dolan stormed into the game in the second half especially with a monster point and some terrific tackling.
That win gives Kildare an immediate chance to test themselves at the higher level when they play Dublin in the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final on Saturday.
"We played very well in attack in the second half, but I think we can thank our full-back line for the win against Laois," Dolan said.
"The lads made some brilliant tackles at crucial times when it looked like Laois might have been in on goal.
"It was due to them that we had the platform to go up and get the scores at the other end.
"It's a very surreal experience and I don't think I have fully grasped it yet," Dolan said.
"But there are a lot of great people helping out behind the scenes in Kildare hurling. The pathway is there but the quality of coaching is top class too and that is really helping us. We have some coaches with real passion and that is evident.
"John Doran has spoken about our good underage structures, and we are blessed to have some top, top coaches like Eoin Stapleton, Cian Hogan, Adrian Kinsella, Johnny Enright, Tom Walsh. Those lads have some passion for Kildare hurling and the amount of work they have done in the past few years bringing players through to the senior team is unreal."
Part of the player pathway for the Kildare hurlers is to emerge from the development squads and then try to ally that experience with club, schools and colleges' hurling.
It is telling many of the Kildare team played hurling for DCU including Dolan, captain Rian Boran, the excellent Simon Leacy, Daniel O'Meara, Cian Boran, James Burke, David Qualter, Darragh Melville, Liam O'Reilly, Jack Higgins, and Conor Dolan.
Further down the learning ladder then, Dolan's club, Éire Óg Corra Choill, had six players on Kildare U14 development squads who travelled to Wicklow and Laois in the past few weeks.
The hurling pathway is becoming clearer, and with an ever-increasing population hopes are high that Kildare can continue to achieve more at a high level across the grades.
"We are certainly in a good place at the moment," Dolan says.
"But there has been a huge amount of hard work put into it.
"St Conleth's will be packed on Saturday and from a promotional point of view that is going to be huge.
"These are the days you work hard for.
"But we are under no illusion about the step up at hand now," he says.
"Aside from facing Dublin, even next year playing in Division 1B and the Leinster championship we know the fight we will have on our hands.
"I can only imagine the pre-season we will be facing," he says, laughing. "But you know what? It will be worth it too to get to test ourselves at that level."
For now, they face a Dublin side that left it late to show any real form against Galway last day out.
They may have to go to battle with injuries to some key players just six days after that seismic win over Laois, but Dolan feels they will enjoy every moment of what lies ahead.
"Look, only a year ago we faced Derry in a Christy Ring Cup final game in front of a three quarter-fill Hogan Stand. And we had to work hard to get past that. Then last Sunday to see the crowd that came to support us and kids now looking up to us now when normally always it would be the footballers in the county that the kids look up to.
"But we had so many clubs filling buses last Sunday and all of that drives you on. It makes us so happy to see. Hopefully we can keep inspiring them.
"When we look back, we lost our first-round McDonagh Cup match against Kerry, but we drove on the work-rate after that. We felt there was more in us. That feeling after the Kerry game meant we put everything into the season after that.
"Against Laois, the fact that we won the first day in the group stages gave us belief. It's dangerous playing a team in a final that you had already beaten but the management team made us believe we were good enough to be there."
