Sullivan looks back on first year in charge of Kildare ladies

In Conversation With Kildare LGFA Senior Manager Pat Sullivan By Pat Costello PAT Sullivan took over as Kildare LGFA senior manager for 2025 and the Tipperary native and Waterford resident sat down with the Kildare Nationalist this week to reflect on the season just gone.

Pat Costello: So Pat, how will you reflect on your first year in charge of Kildare?

Pat Sullivan: That’s a very good question, Pat. I reflect in a couple of ways. One, I think it's been a big change for the style, the setup and the development of young players and players that weren’t involved over the last couple years. That was a major change and that's really developed into something special. You could see that with the younger girls coming in that at underage and minor a couple years ago would have been good and maybe had stepped away or didn't get an opportunity and then girls who were there before. To bring that group back together and build them into something that's there now was really good.

We've put ourselves in a situation where they say maybe Kildare might be doing something here. Now to say, right, you know something, we lost by a point to Waterford, we lost by a point to Mayo. All of a sudden five results in Division One and we're very close to the top three or to even get to a final. You're now looking yourself and saying how can we go from here to make sure that we're sustaining, number one and number two, improving again because the next step is really important now for Kildare.

PC: You were coming into a squad that, over the last two years, was very successful. Did you find an ambitious squad and an ambitious team?

PS: The mission shown from the Executive Team was really something that caught me. Obviously, they would have had success at intermediate level and back up to senior now. I probably looked at it in a couple of different ways. Maybe there were talented players there but to gel that and restructure at senior level is a big difference from being where we have been for the last four or five years. You're now saying, can you become a team in Leinster that can live with the Meaths and the Dublins. The buy in we've got from within the clubs, number one, within the county board, number two and the players has been excellent. You've seen that through the style of play now, probably in the finish of the Kerry game and the Armagh game, versus our first round against Waterford. Where that team has come from now to where currently it is was something. That didn't happen overnight, that took a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of commitment and a lot of change, maybe in style of play for players themselves as well, to make them better footballers.

PC: You decided to bring in a full new management team. Was that important to you?

PS: Yeah, it was important to me for what was required because if you're going on a journey, you have to go on the journey fresh, fresh from everything. We were at senior level and the players wanted to be there. More important for me was you needed people around being able to nurse the younger players, to make sure they were being brought through. Helping, coaching and developing the players that needed more experience from not being at that top table before. Also to look after the players that had been there and had bad memories from the previous year against the Dublins, the Meaths and the Mayos. Fortunately, they were very lucky to come within a penalty of maybe going straight back down again. That's a fine margin so it was very, very important that the management team had the experience. More importantly, we had to build a circle within our own group to believe that there will be ups and downs and probably more downs than ups, but by the end of the season, you will know what it takes to be a senior footballer and I think that's very evident.

PC: You were also stepping into a situation where you had challenges because of the absences of key players and but you also had the challenge of bringing in new players?

PS: Yeah, that’s a really good point. I remember, I think it was mid-December and we had seven from the starting team from the previous year actually out injured and injured from the previous year and one or two who had picked up serious enough injuries in the Club Championship. So, you're trying to make sure you nurse them back and back at the right time but also how could be there be enough experience in the League to try and help the young girls coming through. We probably went with a clean slate and said we're going to have to put these young girls in at the start, they’re going to have to learn on the job and they did. Certain players might have played against Waterford; different players played the following week against Dublin. The Dublin win probably was the first kind of mental win for us to say we deserve to be here, we can be here, we can do this. That helped us go into the Meath game. Then we had the Mayo game where we lost by a point. We knew we were better than that. I think the big decision was on putting the younger players in from the start and saying, right, we don't really have a choice here because this is what has to happen. That became very evident as the championship went on.

PC: Were the Waterford and Mayo games in the League and the Meath games in the Leinster Championship and All Ireland series the biggest disappointment for you, games that probably could have been won?

PS: Yeah, they were disappointments but I think they were really good learning parameters for us. Very small margins in all three games cost us. The opportunities we gave up, though, were massive. We gave up a chance of being in a Leinster Final, we gave up a chance of being very close to knocking on the door to get to the League Final. Those small margins versus where we were previously probably hurt more but they were great learners. I think that was very evident in the Armagh game, particularly in the last five minutes when we coughed up a soft enough goal for our own standards by coughing up a ball further up the field and they punished us. But you could see within the group they were not going down the road of what happened in those three defeats. That belief and that heart really drove them on for the last five minutes and straight away we took control back me. Mia Ryan coming off the bench, a first touch of the ball and over the bar. Laoise Lenihan coming from wing back up the field to score a goal. There was freedom in the team and there was like, it's not happening today and that was the learning from them three losses previously in the year.

PC: Outside of the group we didn't see some victories coming, but, and you chastised us rightly because of that, there seemed to be a belief in the group, between the Management Team and the players that we can do this?

PS: Yeah, there was and I remember back to the Waterford game and saying we weren’t happy with our performance. We didn't perform that day to what I had seen in training. I was confident again, coming back to the Dublin game and we did it in the Dublin game, which was very good to see. I also saw things going through the championship that was happening within the group and in training. Our players were developing and getting used to how to play in our principles and our championship principles. We saw it in the Kerry game. Probably for the first 15 minutes we played really well. A soft enough penalty probably just rocked us a little bit but we had an opportunity just before that ourselves to score a goal. 1-5 to no score would have been a different perspective to where we ended up being four points to a goal. Things swayed a little bit and Kerry’s experience got them back but we came out again the second half and we really went at them and brought the game back to three or four points. Missed an opportunity of a goal, taken off the line, keeper beaten. They’re small margins again but obviously with the experience Kerry got a chance, they took it and they were the better team on the day. I think the issue was the inconsistency in the results but the consistency in the performance was there.

PC: You were very diplomatic on the penalty that was awarded in Kerry, the rest of us said it was a horrible decision. So how do you cope with that, how do you get the players to cope with the ladies football rules, the tackle, they're a challenge to everybody?

PS: It's a sucker punch but it's something we can't control. We speak a lot about this with our own performance coaches, who are really good, and they've moved the girls to a new level in mental skills. You can't control a decision that's out of your hands. You know it's wrong and you know it's not the right decision but you have to think about the next ball and get back up the field and get back on the horse and go again? I do think that was a decision that was probably a decision that if it was the other way around it might not have fallen to us. But look, that's just the nature of the game.

PC: Your involvement of youth in the team seemed seamless, was that just a perception or was it harder than we think it was?

PC: It might look seamless and it has been seamless but the transition of taking an age group through to senior was something I was very used to and it was always part of my own management weapon to say, right, you have to get the mix right. There's also the time where you have to have the right character that you can say, maybe she's not ready for senior but she has the ability so you're going to have to give her that chance. But you need to make sure she's looked after because the last thing you want is to bring young girls in and they get a real tough day at the office. They come off that field they don't want to go back the next day and you actually break their confidence. So, integrating them at the right time, integrating enough that you still have to spread to look after that group but also believing in them. A player can play a position in your principles. She'll do the simple thing this week. It was trusting the players and making sure that they knew whatever happens you’re doing this process, you have a script for it but don't worry I'll be on the line, I'll keep talking to you, I'll tell you what you to do as well.

PC: You mentioned S&C, where is Kildare in relation to S&C and development.

PS: There's a really good programme put in place now. I'm not saying it wasn't there but it wasn't structured to the way they want to play. I hear this so much about we're three and four years behind the Kerrys and the Corks but why do you want to play like Kerry and Cork? Why do you want to play like Dublin? I don't want Kildare playing like Dublin. I have great respect for Dublin and great respect for Kerry, but that's their play, that's their system, that's their process. We’ve a lot of speed in Kildare; we've good athletes so we don't want to slow them down. We want to make sure their injury protection is really good, their recovery is good and their programme gets them physically strong enough to play to their ability and that's what's really put in place now. We have to go to the next level in S&C now. Why? Because we have the base, we have the level. Last year we couldn't have gone there because you’d just break players down but they're now ready to go there.

PC: There was an attendance over 5,000 at the Kerry game and that probably helped them when there were four or five points down. Do you foresee a situation where that can be replicated in Kildare because you're playing good football?

PS: I think that was a really interesting point for me and I would have been experienced before. Going into the championship against Kerry is a totally different game to playing Kerry in the League, or whatever. The volume that day in Kerry it was even hard times to hear my guy in the stand that was watching the game for me. Kildare have a really good opportunity to go to the same place next year. Getting into Conleth’s was massive for this bunch of players. Now, the big thing is, how can we work together with clubs, the County Board, our sponsors, the whole Management Team and the Group to make sure we promote this game next year. Credit to the support this year, it's been excellent. I've seen people down in Tralee, down in Killarney, in Conleth’s and in Armagh as well. It's great and the girls are so good with it with the kids and stuff. It's great to see that interaction but we need to make sure now we get to 5,000 next year when we're playing championship. We have to continue to work with the clubs, work within the County Board. 40 to 50 kids are better than 200 adults in the stand because of what they bring. They’re going to see their heroes and what they bring. More importantly, if you 50 or 60 kids going to a game today there's 50 parents have to go as well and all of a sudden, you're getting that drive behind the team. In fairness to yourself and the lads you’ve been so good from a media perspective as well, trying to promote the game and that's been really important.

PC: Finally Pat, where are Kildare on this day in July 2025?

PS: It's easy to say Kildare are in a good place. Kildare are in a place where they've put themselves. Now the team can compete. Take the one or two out of the top level for the last couple of years and Kildare can compete with anybody else Are they far off that one or two? No. There are small margins but those small margins will be the hardest piece for this group. If we go back and do what we did this year, come next December, we won't be successful. We'll need to go back, do what we did and improve and close the gap on those small margins.