Hyland keen to lift silverware in a Kildare jersey

After taking a year out from intercounty action to travel in 2024, experienced defender and former captain, David Hyland, is back playing better than ever for Kildare and relishing wearing the Lilywhite jersey as he and keenly looks forward to Saturday’s Tailteann Cup Final against Limerick in Croke Park, throw in 2.30pm. 

“It's great to be back,” the Athy stalwart told The Kildare Nationalist while he was on Media duties in advance of Saturday’s Final.

“I was saying to one of the lads there, last year I was looking on before I went traveling in June and it was tough to watch on. I was at all the boys’ League games and the Championship game in Croker and it was tough to watch on and not be able to give a dig out,” he said. 

“It's great to be back in the fold and being able to add to it and hopefully get a bit of success,” he added.

Hylo, as he is affectionately known, sees a renewed energy in the Kildare team this year. 

“Flanno (Brian Flanagan) is a great man, he's really a people's person and he overlays that with a very strong kind of business/commercial acumen. I think on top of that he just surrounds himself with really good people,” he explains. 

“First and foremost, he picks genuine people and then they kind of bring their football skillset to the group. He's just creating a great environment and that's kind of breeding a bit of success. People are able to come in and express themselves and we can really see that with the way we are playing football, I think,” he continued.

After the great victory over Westmeath in the Leinster Championship quarter-final in April Kildare suffered disappointment by losing to eventual champions, Louth in the semi-final, something which still doesn’t sit well with Hyland. 

“I don’t want to gloss over it - it was a huge disappointment that we didn't beat Louth in Leinster. I think it’s a huge regret,” he tells us. 

“Our conversion rate that day wasn't where it needed to be and making no bones about it, I think, maybe I'm speaking over the top here, but I think we left the Leinster behind us and that is a regret,” he added.

After the disappointment of that loss to Louth Kildare regrouped and although the Tailteann Cup may not have been the competition they might have wished for Brian Flanagan’s charges regrouped manfully and, after topping their group, came through difficult games against Offaly and Fermanagh to reach Saturday’s final against Limerick, something which is not lost on the vastly experienced defender. 

“It was very much management led the way we approached the Tailteann Cup. The management were putting no pressure on us in the first two games and said, look, just get back and try and enjoy your football,” Hyland told us. 

“There was a hangover from the Louth game and then we sat down the Monday night after the Tipperary game and said, look, we've an eight-week block here to go and win the Tailteann and this is what it means for us,” he continued. 

“I think we've really come on from that and I think we're a different team now than we were, even back to when you go back to the back end of Division 3 and those two games we played against Offaly. We've a lot more lads that you can bring on to the pitch and our brand of football, I think, is a lot better as well,” he opined. 

While there are great and experienced leaders on the pitch like himself, captain and fellow clubman, Kevin Feely and Daniel Flynn, Hyland sees a lot of leadership qualities in the younger players as well. 

“Definitely, yeah,” he says. 

“Those young lads have a lot more success at county level than I do so I'm learning from them as much as they're learning from me. For me the other day (against Fermanagh) wasn't one of my best days in a Kildare jersey and I kicked away the ball and I had Colm Dalton in my ear, saying, 'next one Hylo', and what’s Colm, 21 years of age. I took a lot from that because I was fairly down in the dumps with my own performance and for a lad like that, who isn't the most vocal, to come up to you and have a word with you, there's a great dynamic within the team,” he added.

The former Kildare captain is impressed with the competition for places on the team, particularly in defence. 

“I think it's extremely strong squad. You can see that by the impact from what we bring from the bench every day of the week. There’s different dynamic of footballers as well. We have good sticky man markers; we've a good bit of strength down the spine. We've scoring wing backs and we have good holding defenders as well. We can mix it both offensively and defensively. I think we're blessed in that regard,” he opined.

Despite having played for Kildare for so many years Hyland is looking forward to Saturday’s Tailteann Cup Final with a huge amount of enthusiasm. 

“It's huge,” he says proudly. 

“I'm playing for Kildare since 2013 and I have no silverware to my name so it's going to be something that I'm after and there's no point in shying away from it. Yes, I do want to lift silverware in Croke Park.” 

Continuing he said, “Also it’s what it means for those in my family who have never seen me lift silverware in Croke Park and my dad who would be going to all the games the length and breadth of the country. So, for them as well, you give them a day out.” 

Speaking of what it means to appear in a national final for his Kildare teammates Hyland had this to say. 

“For the group, I suppose, it means a lot for us. Usually there over the last few years we could have been finished football in May so in terms of the long-term development of this team we’re together another two months. It's not a long time until you come back to training at the end of October/November so you're not away from each for that long. Then you've the security of Sam Maguire and Division 2 so you can have it cut off that too so there are a lot of positives from getting this far but ultimately, we want to win it,” he said enthusiastically.

Although the Athy man has only seen Limerick in highlights he is impressed by what he has seen. 

“They were seven points down (against Wicklow in the semi-final) and then they came back and won by four in the end so they showed a lot of resolve. They’re a good footballing team.” he said.

Prior to the semi-final against Fermanagh there was plenty of discussions about Kildare’s losing record in Croke Park but Hyland doesn’t buy into that narrative. 

“I never made an issue of it, to be honest with you,” he said strongly. 

“There's so much flux between the team this year and there has been over the past few years as well. As I mentioned already, I never made any kind of bones about that. I think, the venue is the venue it’s not something I'd be wasting any oxygen on,” he went on. 

“But every player is different, maybe some lads needed to get over that but ultimately, if we're to win the Tailteann, we will have two back-to-back wins in Croker and that will stand to us next year as well,” he concluded.