Kildare captain Feely ready for Championship

Despite the disappointment of losing the Allianz League Division 3 Football Final less that 24 hours earlier, Kildare captain, Kevin Feely, was present at the launch of the Leinster Football Championship in Cedral St Conleth’s Park last week and he and gave a performance that was equal to any of the high standards he sets on the pitch.

Like his team mates the Athy man feels great pride in the newly developed Cedral St Conleth’s Park. 

“It definitely seemed to kind of give us that little bit of an extra energy boost in the League games that we played here. Undoubtedly our three home games were our three best performances. The pitch lends itself to taking advantage of the new rules a little bit better as well, in terms of having more space, less congestion for the forward line, less congestion for kick outs and stuff like that,” he said.

Reflecting on the League campaign the Kildare captain said, “Happy that we got promotion, that was definitely an overall take but disappointed with the games we lost in that they were all games we very easily could have won if we tidied up on a few different things. In general, the goal was absolutely to get promoted. That's been done and we've had some roadblocks along the way. Hopefully that's the only roadblocks we'll tend to face in terms of getting our performance a little bit more consistent,” he added.

The injection of new blood from the successful U20 teams is seen as a positive by the Athy man. 

“It's probably been the first year for a long time where we've transitioned a lot of lads at the same time into the into the team and, given the kind of scars we have from the last three years, hopefully it's a sign of a very bright future.”

Looking forward to the Championship Kevin Feely said, “There's very little difference in the ability of those teams (in Leinster). It'll be who performs on the day, really. To say that it's essential for us to be in the All-Ireland series when we know how competitive this Leinster campaign is going to be, it's probably going too far. It could well be that we end up in the Tailteann Cup and if we do, we just have to make sure that we bring our best performance to that as well.” 

While the League Final defeat was still fresh in the mind Kevin Feely admitted that he hadn’t yet turned his mind towards Saturday’s game against Westmeath against whom Kildare have had a decent run in the Championship in recent times. 

“Obviously we knew the draw from a while ago and as much as we're taking each game as it comes, we were definitely keeping an eye on how Westmeath were going. They were probably the unluckiest team in the League in that they've been agonizingly close to winning games in Division Two with what looks like brilliant performances as well. They have potentially a couple of lads come back into their squad for championship too so we're under no illusion as to how big the test is going to be but there is huge excitement that it's the first home Leinster game as well that any of us have ever played so we're looking forward to it,” he told us.

Kevin Feely is supportive of playing the Leinster semi-finals away from Croke Park. “I think it kind of suits pretty much all the stakeholders to have a game in a smaller venue where the atmosphere is better, where the energy around the place is a little bit better. As we’ve all seen in years gone by, Leinster semi-finals can look a little bit stale and a little bit dead with the lack of atmosphere in such a big stadium (Croke Park). So yeah, I see nothing really but positives.” 

The Kildare captain is thrilled with the support he and his team have been receiving from the Kildare fans. 

“Every single home game we played here, we absolutely felt every bit of the support that was there and to be fair, every away game as well, you'd be well aware of the huge kind of Kildare crowd that was traveling. We just hope that we can bring a level of consistency of performance that shows some gratitude to what they're bringing to us.” 

“I can't wait for it to get started,” were the parting words from Kevin Feely. “There's no better place to kick off your Leinster Campaign than here in Cedral St Conleth’s Park,” he concluded.