Everyone has to be on the same page for 2026
Kildare manager Brian Dowling says he has things to discuss with the county board before committing for the exciting 2026 season Photo: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane
While reflecting on Kildare’s loss to Dublin in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Preliminary Quarter Final in Cedral St Conleth’s Park on Saturday after a very successful year for his team, manager, Brian Dowling, fired the first salvo when asked about his involvement with the Lilywhites in 2026.
“There’s a huge amount of work that will have to go on before next year’s Leinster Championship but we knew that before today,” he told Reporters including the Kildare Nationalist after exiting the 2026 All Ireland Hurling Championship.
“You are not just going to swan in there and turn up and get a victory,” he warned.
Asked if he would be on board for 2026, Dowling had this to say.
“Look, I will have to sit down and talk to the County Board and see what happens. You know, there's a lot of work that has to go into it and you have to be fully backed and everyone has to be on the same page because there's so much has to go into this.”
“We have the smallest backroom team there of any Intercounty team but brilliant lads in my backroom team that I have. They are unbelievable with everything they've done but we're trying to push everything, we're trying to do so much, it's so hard. We've gone up to next level and just even to see before the match there, Dublin, like the amount of people there in the background, six or seven lads with laptops, that kind of stuff.”
Continuing Dowling added, “We're in a world apart from that but look, hopefully, we’ll get the support now and Kildare can build on a fantastic year.”
“It (next year) is a massive step. You could see the gulf in class today. A lot of hard work has to go in off the field and on the field. When you jump up a level you have to go up a level in preparation and everything. It’s too early to be talking about today but that something to sit down and talk about in the next couple of weeks and try and plan for the future,” the manager added.
“The amount of work that them lads have done before we came back training last year was unreal and that’s what has to be done again and even more now to be at the level we need to get to. The physique of the Dublin players is unreal and that’s another level we have to get to but the lads will do everything they can to get there.”
