Injuries are a concern but Flanagan pleased with newcomers

Between a lengthy injury list, retirements, sabbaticals and club commitments, Kildare look likely to head to Omagh in five weeks’ time with a much-changed panel from the one that clinched the Tailteann Cup in July.

Flanagan prefers to look on the bright side of those issues though few in the crowd would have done so as a second-string Kerry looked set to sweep his charges away with a devastating, unanswered flurry of 1-8 in the opening 14 minutes.

“We’ve a lot of injuries and a lot of fellas that were resting up after a long club season and things like that. But the upside of that is you get to look at a lot of new faces. Looking out there tonight and I’m thinking of Liam Kelly at 19 years of age the way he applied himself. Drives up the field in the second half and gets a score, James Harris went really well at six. Daragh Ryan. Different lads getting an opportunity now that are putting their hand up and that’s the beauty of this time of year and hopefully over the next couple of weeks we can start getting lads back on the field, we can start getting lads back into the set-up and take it from there,” Flanagan told the Kildare Nationalist afterwards.

It was he thought, a very “useful exercise” for lads who have “put in a tough pre-season, they’ve got going on the pitch in the last couple of weeks. You need to see them out there and how they get on, and I thought some lads did really well tonight. So, very happy with it, and very useful.” 

The success of Kildare clubs in Leinster is perhaps a double-edged sword, but Flanagan is positive about it, despite the challenges.

“I think it’s good, I think psychologically it’s good for the county. To see Grange and Sallins winning Leinster titles is fantastic and we were all behind them last weekend. I think that’s good and we’ll get the lads back whenever they’re back and between now and then we wish them all the very best and we’ll help them out whatever way we can.” 

The full-back line certainly creaked in those opening stages, but the strong wind did them no favours, and they might feel they could have received more protection from the onslaught. Flanagan agreed it looked like it could have gotten ugly but offered an assessment of the value of the wind in mitigation and was upbeat about the team’s reaction to their slow start.

“It could have (turned into a very difficult night), and you have to huge credit to our lads that they dug in and they got a foothold in the game, especially off kickouts towards the latter end of the first half and I felt to be honest it was a ten or twelve point wind under the new rules. We said that before the game and I think we came in eleven down at half-time. So, we weren’t actually too put out by that, we felt we’d chase it down over the next 35 minutes. We did feel the wind had died down a little bit, but you can’t do anything about that.” 

Most eyes were on the newcomers and returnees understandably. Sean Moore was relatively quiet, Kelly showed his athleticism and attacking intent, Harris and Dan Lynam grew into it, and Ben Loakman did plenty of good things in attack including an exquisite two pointer.

Eoin Cully joined the panel after the under-20 campaign earlier this year and he gave an impressive performance, scoring four points and looking quick and strong in the inside line. Ryan Sinkey carried on where he left off last year and Callum Bolton was among those who came to the fore once Kildare wiped away the cobwebs.

Defensively Kildare looked a bit lightweight and although he wasn’t a starter in the summer Mick O’Grady will be missed as a calming presence back there. None of the trio selected could contain the tall, athletic Tomás Kennedy.

It will be mid-January before Flanagan finalises a league panel, after the O’Byrne Cup. The approach to that will see similar experimentation, some of it enforced, as we saw on Saturday.

“It will follow the same sort of grain as tonight. You’ll mix in certain lads from the established group that are training and are injury free and everything else and available to play and then you’ll want to look at six, seven, eight lads in every game that are in for the first time and trying to put their hand up.” 

Injuries will dictate who is available for Tyrone on 24 January, with Flanagan suggesting a number on the wounded list will miss that one at a minimum. Those would include Jack Robinson (hamstring) and Darragh Kirwan (recovering from surgery).

“The (long-term) ones you probably know about, Cathal Hagney would be late April you’d imagine by the time he gets back from a cruciate, Shane Farrell is still rehabbing and there’s no real timeline on that, unfortunately. Everybody else, probably the next six to eight weeks. We’re not too bad in that regard, it’s just there’s a lot at one time. That seems to be the way across the board.” 

With O’Grady, Niall Kelly and Daniel Flynn retired and Kevin Flynn, Aaron Masterson and Tony Archbold among those who have stepped away, it’s certainly a considerable upheaval for Flanagan’s second year ahead of a tough Division 2 campaign. In that scenario, however, opportunity knocks and the O’Byrne Cup will offer another chance for some of Saturday evening’s debutants to stake their claim.