IT’S ONLY FOUR years since Kildare ran Dublin to the wire in Croke Park and only fell a point short.
But the gap between the Leinster football duo has grown ever since and the chasm has left Dublin as overwhelming favourites for next Sunday’s provincial semi-final.
How can Kildare try to stage a seismic upset? Settling quickly to the contest is imperative.
“I think their biggest challenge for Kildare coming in to the game is one mentally,” says ex-Dublin star Ciaran Whelan.
Croke Park is a lonely, lonely place when the Dubs get a run on a team.
“Their second biggest challenge is they have to keep the game tight in the first 20 minutes.
“They bring great confidence and belief into the game based on their last two performances where they dug out a draw and they won.
“But that confidence can drain away within ten minutes if Dublin get a run on them. The Longford game is the perfect example as much as Jack Sheedy played it in the spirit of football.
“The Longford players were left looking at that scoreboard and looking at that clock thinking, ‘Jeez we’ve 65 minutes of this and that game is over’.”
Kildare boss Jason Ryan came close to breaking Dublin’s stranglehold when he was in charge of Wexford.
Yet the landscape has shifted since those near misses.
“He’s done well when he was with Wexford against Gilroy’s teams but this is a different challenge,” outlines Whelan.
“This Dublin team just play a different style of play. The (Kildare) half-back line played very deep against Laois.
“They probably played too deep and that could give Connolly and Flynn and the likes of those a chance to open them up.
“My biggest fear for Kildare is that they don’t have the firepower up front. That even if they do come and play their defensive game, they’re going to be very reliant on Alan Smith and Padraig Fogarty, Niall Kelly coming off the bench, to put in big performances.
“Laois gave Kildare a phenomenal amount of space and time in the reply. They made Kildare look very good so the 3-16 comes with a health warning.”
So what is Dublin’s greatest barrier to achieving success?
“Dublin’s biggest challenge is their own complacency and their own headspace,” says Whelan.
“Dublin come into the game like they did against Cork in the National League, it’s curtains. If they come in a little lackadaisical and they’re not tuned in, they’ll give Kildare an opportunity.
“Dublin are just operating at a different level. Stepping back you would like and hope Kildare would come and ask questions of Dublin.
“Nobody in Leinster is going to put up that resistance to them which leaves them very vulnerable in August.
“It would be very useful from a Dublin perspective if Kildare came and made it difficult for them.”
