Hurlers start Championship with aim of maintaining McDonagh Cup spot

The Kildare hurling story may have reached its sliding doors moment.

Thanks to the work of Joe Quaid, David Herity and Brian Dowling at senior level and the likes of Adrian Kinsella and Eoin Stapleton at underage level, not to mention all those involved in development squads and the work of the Hurling Development Committee over the last seven or eight years, Kildare have become serial winners at Christy Ring Cup level and, of course, will be operating at the elevated heights of Division 1B in next year’s Allianz League.

All very commendable and, while crowds remain modest, the level of interest in the game, particularly in terms of participation at underage level, has grown substantially over that time.

Five Christy Ring titles is not to be sneezed at but it’s time now to make an impression in the Tier 2 McDonagh Cup. Kildare have played eight games in the competition, three in 2021 and five in 2023 and have lost all eight, unfortunately.

Some were close of course, none more than our two group games in our first appearance in the Covid-curtailed competition of 2021. Carlow only had three points to spare over us and a humdinger in Mullingar saw Westmeath edge home by the minimum.

More disappointing was the no-show against Meath in a relegation play-off that year in Parnell Park, the Royals saving their skins with ten points to spare.

Two years later, on return from the Ring tier, Kildare came into the competition having reached the Division 2A final of the league and only narrowly beaten by Offaly in that one. But it was a team that had peaked too soon and a nineteen point drubbing by Carlow saw the rot set in and four games later we were back in tier three.

Yet again we have bounced back in accomplished fashion and now the single biggest objective for Dowling and his panel must be to break the pattern of yo-yoing between the two tiers.

On the face of it, they should certainly have a good chance, and it would be fair for the county to have an expectation of staying up this time. For while Carlow, Laois and Westmeath are counties that have tended to have that little bit too much for us, both Kerry and Down are teams that we should be targeting to beat and, crucially, both those games are at home in Cedral St Conleth’s Park, where Kildare went unbeaten in the recent promotion-winning Division 2 campaign.

Laois were only three points off beating Offaly to promotion to the Leinster Championship in last year’s final, though they and Westmeath are passing Kildare on the way down from Division 1B of the league and may both be vulnerable.

Carlow on the other hand, who are coming down from the Leinster Championship, had a very competitive Division 1B campaign where they won two and drew two of their six games, comfortably avoiding the drop. They’ll have eyes on a quick return to the top championship.

The imperative for Kildare is to get off to a good start against Kerry in Newbridge on Saturday (2pm) and while they won the league encounter with seventeen points to spare at the same venue that game was early in the campaign and Kerry improved to finish joint third in the table.

The Kingdom are also an accomplished McDonagh Cup team at this stage, illustrated by their third place finish last year when they beat Westmeath, Down and Meath.

The concern is that this is the sort of game Kildare have developed a habit of losing. Apart from those five McDonagh defeats two years ago they lost to Meath in their opening league game last year and similarly this year they started the league with a loss to Down in Ballycran.

But it is the league final loss to the Mourne Men that suggests Kildare still have a way to go to convince hurling watchers that they can make the further step up. Kildare were in command of that one before shipping four second half goals in a remarkable collapse.

Down will have taken great heart from that final with a visit to Newbridge to come in the final round. There could be plenty riding on that one, indeed it may even be a relegation play-off, though we hope not.

Kildare have some lovely hurlers. Simon Leacy, Rian Boran, Cathal McCabe and Jack Sheridan would find their way onto many county teams while David Qualter is an accomplished young freetaker.

Dowling has done an excellent job, by and large, as did predecessor David Herity, but Kildare are playing, to coin a phrase, ‘senior hurling’ now, and it will be interesting to see if they can rise to the occasion when it’s really needed on Saturday.

The manager named his team early on Friday: