KEVIN FEELY COMES across as a deep thinker when it comes to his sport.
He’s taken an interesting path to the Kildare senior football set-up as former professional soccer player who grew up in Waterford admiring the Deise hurlers.
And when he assesses Kildare’s All-Ireland qualifier exit to Armagh in the summer, he doesn’t roll out any tired cliches.
Instead, Feely feels the Lilywhites players should have identified Armagh’s game-plan and adjusted their tactics accordingly during the game, rather than wait for instruction from the sideline.
“We were devastated after that game, not just because we lost an All-Ireland qualifier but we felt we didn’t perform,” he says.
“We felt Armagh outplayed us and got the better of us tactically. They got their tactics right and we weren’t able to deal with it as it was happening on the pitch.
“It showed a lack of leadership on the pitch from ourselves. We very much recognised on the pitch what went wrong for us and we didn’t react to adversity because we met something we hadn’t come across all year and weren’t able to deal with it.
“Just a complete change in kick-out strategy from the other team, how they dealt with our kick-out strategy.”
Kildare were expected to account for the Orchard and advance into the All-Ireland quarter-finals, but they were outsmarted by Kieran McGeeney.
Armagh played with a sweeper and their two wing-forwards dropping extremely deep, which left space for Jamie Clarke to exploit at the far end. Kildare’s slow build-up play only played into Armagh’s hands and allowed them play counter-attacking football.
“They had a different system to what we had come across altogether in terms of bringing midfield and half-forwards back into their own half leaving massive space for their three or four forwards that they left up.
“It completely left our backs exposed and it was very naive on our part on the pitch not realising what was happening at the time. It’s something we reflected on and we’re hoping to maybe build on that next year.”
Having spent time at full-back and full-forward in 2016, Feely found his home at midfield this year and thrived. He was nominated for an All-Star and made the Irish International Rules side for the trip to Australia last month.
“It was brilliant in every respect, apart from the result,” he says of the series Down Under. “I loved every bit of it. It was more like a training camp. We trained every day, more or less.
“The level of training we were getting was brilliant, so new to me, I had never played the game before but there was different skills, different drills I was working on that I would never have worked on before.
“That made it so enjoyable as well, the fact that you were doing these new things. Great bunch of lads, enjoyed the craic we had. Even the matches themsleves, ridiculously enjoyable. Such a good game to play 100mph.
“Didn’t get the result we wanted and Australia are full deserving of their win but to play against the guys who are top level in their code (was great).”
Feely believes his soccer background – he played with Bohemians, Charlton, Carlisle United and Newport County – has helped him on the GAA field.
“How it has helped me is defensive awareness, tactical awareness, not over committing bodies, very much as a centre-back in soccer your thought process is about not conceding and about being defensively set up well.
“Coming into midfield in that position, you’re in a great areas of the pitch where you can make sure and communicate and organise that you are set up well.
“I’ve always tried to bring that into the set up in Kildare whenever I’m playing so I think that was definitely something soccer helps with.
“Being defensively aware and communicate things to the guys around you, soccer is really good in that respect. Something that could be brought more in Gaelic games.”
Kildare begin life in Division 1 next month where they’ll come up against the top sides in the country. It’s a prospect Feely says the squad are looking forward to.
“So exciting, even during the whole off-season everyone has been excited talking about Division 1 and the challenges it will bring. We’re just really going to make sure we are
competitive in every game.
“We think it will be a real benchmark for us in terms of where we are and a test for us to see if what we are doing is going in the right direction. the importance of the league can’t be stressed enough any more in terms of where it leaves you leading into championship.
“The perception of you as a team in the country, if you are competing in Division 1, that perception is that you are a top team and that’s what we want. We were happy with Division 2, getting promoted. But this year is the real test.
“If we can show that we are competitive in Div 1 and do ourselves justice in every game, do what Cian (O’Neill) is looking for out of us. Hopefully we’ll be in a good position to bounce on.”
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