Seasons on the line as Kildare and Offaly clash in Tailteann Cup

They say that revenge is a dish best served cold, and it is shaping up to the unseasonably chilly on Saturday evening when Kildare put their season on the line in the Tailteann Cup quarter-final against Offaly.

Brian Flanagan’s men have suffered twice already at the hands of the Faithful County so will be hoping it will a case of third time lucky at the sold out occasion which also encompasses the Kildare hurlers All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final tie against Dublin.

Although beaten twice by Offaly already this season, in Tullamore in the League and then in the Division 3 Final in Croke Park, both games were close so while this is a difficult task it is far from insurmountable.

Along with Westmeath, Offaly was the most difficult draw that Kildare could have received at this stage of the competition but there are two schools of thought on this. One is that Kildare could have been paired with Wexford, who on paper would have been an easier draw and the Lilywhites would have been firm favourites to progress to a semi-final and go at least one stage further than last year.

There’s another school of though, however, that says this is a brilliant draw for Kildare. If Kildare are serious about winning this competition they will have to beat one, and most likely both, of Offaly and Westmeath so surely better to get the chance to take out one of the main competitors in their own back yard.

Kildare’s record in Newbridge so far this year, and under Flanagan, has been flawless. In the league, games against Fermanagh, Laois and Antrim all looked like potential banana skins before a ball was thrown in but fast starts in all those games helped Kildare win with relative comfort. The Leinster Championship tie against Westmeath was a more difficult affair, and the Midlanders are likely to still have regrets about how that ended up, but it was still a game in which Kildare found a way to win.

That Kildare won that game was down to the fact that they scored two goals and while it’s overly simplistic to say that if Kildare score goals they will win on Saturday, the stats show there is more than an element of truth to that.

Games such as against Clare in the League and most especially against eventual Leinster champions Louth in the provincial semi-final could have swung Kildare’s way had they converted just one of the litany of chances they created.

Just to emphasise that point. In the last 25 League and Championship games that Kildare have they drawn a blank in front of goals, they have won just five of them. In the last 29 games when they have scored at least one goal, Kildare have gone on to win 23 of them.

With goals so important to the Kildare team, it’s been heartening to see the rejuvenated Daniel Flynn hitting form so spectacularly in the last two games. Goals against Tipperary and Sligo were the first time he hit the back of the net in consecutive games since the 2021 Leinster Championship.

After struggling for form, fitness and gametime in recent years, Flynn is playing with a smile on his face and a Daniel Flynn who is enjoying his football is bad news for opponents.

Of course, Offaly are a far sterner opponent than either of Tipperary or Sligo and they will know all about Flynn’s prowess. Back in 2012, Flynn won a Hogan Cup with Offaly school St Marys of Edenderry when he counted the likes of Rhode’s Ruairi McNamee as a team-mate.

The question will be who partners Daniel Flynn in attack and there’s no doubt that’s Kildare’s preparations for this game have been dogged by injury. Star forward Darragh Kirwan, along with defenders Mick O’Grady and Ryan Houlihan and midfielder Cathal Hagney, didn’t make the squad for the last game against Sligo and those problems exacerbated once the ball was thrown in.

Ben McCormack was forced off with barely two minutes played, while the luckless Jimmy Hyland also picked up an injury before half time. The one positive for Hyland was it wasn’t a recurrence of the string of hamstring injuries he’s had but the sight of him leaving Hyde Park on crutches wasn’t exactly reassuring. Half time substitute Callum Bolton also didn’t last long before needing to be replaced.

The fitness, or lack thereof, of all those players, plus that of Kevin Flynn, who hasn’t had much luck this season with injuries this season either, will have to be carefully considered before a team is finalised.

One option to bolster the forward line should it be needed would be to move Kevin Feely into a role that he has often filled on the edge of the squad but midfield is another intriguing area of the field for Flanagan. Brenan Gibbons has started the last two games but they are his only appearances of the season after his early season was also hampered by injury, and the Kilcock man was replaced after 48 minutes against Tipperary and then at half time against Sligo.

If Bolton and Hagney are unavailable, it would leave midfield cover thin on the ground although Aaron Masterson remains a surprisingly underused option.

Away from Flynn, Alex Beirne has been the star in the Kildare attack so far. He has grasped a leadership role in this Kildare team this year and the scores have started to flow. He's playing with a maturity nowadays and enjoys being the go-to man in the Kildare attack.

From an Offaly point of view, they arrive into the game on the back of a sketchy Tailteann Cup campaign. They had to go the longer route through the preliminary quarter-final after finishing second in their group thanks to a defeat against Laois, ironically enough at Cedral St Conleths Park.

That has led to them having a more difficult quarter-final than they would have liked, at a venue where they haven’t beaten Kildare since 2004 and they will be rueing that defeat to Laois as much as the one to Kildare if their season ends on Saturday evening.

That said, Offaly will take great confidence from the problems that they caused Kildare in earlier meetings this year. Although, as referenced earlier in this piece, both games were close there is no doubting that Offaly were the better team in both.

Cormac Egan was the most menacing of all Offaly players and perhaps it is no coincidence that Mickey Harte and Declan Kelly’s team lost against Laois when he was unavailable. The Tullamore star picked up a quad injury in the week leading into that clash but fears that the injury could have been more serious were allayed and Egan got 50 minutes under his belt against New York as Offaly got back to winning ways in the preliminary quarter-finals.

Offaly are far from a one band however and forwards such Keith O’Neill, Jack Bryant and Dyland Hyland are all capable of game changing moments on their own, and then they have the man who knits most of their attacks together from the half forward line, Cathal Flynn.

It’s all set up for a wonderful game as part of a wonderful occasion. The infamous “Newbridge or nowhere” clash against Mayo was probably the last time that at a game at Cedral St Conleths Park had the sold out signs up so far in advance of the game and the newly developed stand means there will be far more in attendance on Saturday evening than for that game.

Many of those who have bought tickets are likely to be Dublin fans only interested in the hurling game so the attendance probably won’t be at capacity by the time the ball is thrown in but the atmosphere will be crackling for what is sure to be an epic encounter.