THEY SAY TO feel envy is human but to sample schadenfreude is devilish.
A couple of years back as Meath danced their jig of delight around Croke Park after beating Down in the Tailteann Cup final, it is likely among their Leinster peers that instead of inviting jealousy, it was used as a tape to measure how far the once mighty had fallen.
To be fair, caged inside a province subjected to Dublin’s authoritarian rule, if you could not take pleasure from the misfortune of others, you were likely not to take it at all.
Kildare’s comfort was that they were still kicking the ball out as the Sam Maguire team they had always been.
Within 12 months not only were Kildare playing in the Tailteann Cup, they were losing in it, dumped out by Laois in a quarter-final, which would mark the end for Glenn Ryan and the starting point for Brian Flanagan.
Kildare boss Brian Flanagan. Grace Halton / INPHO
Grace Halton / INPHO / INPHO
Thing is, you have to squint hard to see how much has changed. Kildare are back in the Sam Maguire but only because they have been able to play last season’s Tailteann Cup winning card having ended this spring back in Division 3 where Ryan had left them.
They meet Laois again this Sunday but even if they win it will not alter the perception that they are making up the numbers when the All-Ireland series throws in.
As for Meath, they are dancing to a different beat these times. They are not just a Division 1 team, they are the only Leinster county in the top tier next season.
They are playing like a Division 1 team as well to the point that for the first time in over two decades, the market gives them as much of a shout as Dublin to win Leinster.
Tailteann Cup
If Kildare are looking at a glass half full, they might hold the view that if winning the Tailteann Cup can do that for Meath, it can do the same for them.
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Mind, that takes a lot of looking.
The chasm that now separates the two counties, that have always been touted as Dublin’s closest Leinster rivals, will not be bridged because both their names have been inscribed on the base of a second tier championship trophy.
Under Robbie Brennan, Meath have found certainty, organisation and belief, but only because they have assembled a high-quality squad that is even better than the one which reached the All-Ireland semi-final last year.
Certainty
That certainty is to be found in a team so established that 11 players started in every one of their eight games in winning Division 2, their organisation is evident in a game-plan that leans heavily on a capacity to compete man on man and to strike for scores outside the arc, and the belief is grounded in the hard evidence they have taken another step forward.
Sean Brennan’s displacement of Billy Hogan in goal has further weaponised their two-point threat, kicking seven of their 26 orange flag conversions this spring, while the return of Jack Flynn – who missed the last four championship games last year – has ensured that along with Brian Menton, Cian McBride, Adam O’Neill and Matthew Costello they have not only a beefed up midfield, but it is one that can sting too.
Bryan Menton after Meath's recent league final victory. Tom Maher / INPHO
Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
As for their bench, from where Jack O’Connor has excelled during the league, James Conlon’s four-point haul against Cork last month, allied to Ruairi Kinsella and Jordan Morris’ well signposted threats, reveals an attack to be feared.
In so many ways, Kildare feel like the polar opposite, a group hit by doubt, searching for an identity and with confidence levels floored after a spring in which they managed a solitary win over Division 2’s whipping boys Offaly.
Luck has not been their friend either. They have been dogged by injuries, which saw the likes of Ryan Sinkey, James McGrath and Ben McCormack miss large swathes of the spring, which came on top of the retired quartet of Niall Kelly, Mick O’Grady, Daniel Flynn and David Hyland.
Absence
The latter may well be the biggest miss, with Hyland’s absence in the centre of their defence sorely missed. No other team coughed up multiple two-point concessions in every match on the way to giving up 25 orange flags.
But it has been a complete system breakdown. In a game that has gone back to a more combative future, having a goalkeeper with a boot and man-mountain midfielders to hit has become critical.
Unfortunately, with the exception of hitting Kevin Feely who also endured an injury interrupted spring, when faced with a press Cian Burke has little choice but to punt off the kicking tee on the back of a wing and a thousand prayers.
Middle Eight
They simply do not have a functioning middle eight in terms of protecting their kick-outs which would ultimately condemn them to relegation as Cavan, and, in particular, Gearoid McKiernan went to town on their restarts in the defining Round 4 defeat.
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A week later, they barely managed to post double digits when at the end of a 14-point hammering from Meath, exposing an attack that leans far too heavily on Brian McLoughlin and asks far too much of the exciting prospect that is Ben Loakman to give them something to defend.
While McCormack’s return offered hope, coming off the bench to kick a couple of two-pointers against Cork, he limped out of the final round loss to Louth to what is understood to be a recurring injury.
Looking for green shoots of hope requires a magnifying glass, although Jack Robinson, who spent last summer playing ball for New York, may add to their threat but, right now, that feels closer to a finger in the dyke than a silver bullet.
Even allowing for their misfortune, there is a bottom line that is becoming increasingly impossible to ignore, Kildare are simply not good enough to cut it at the highest level.
Meath players celebrating their recent Division 2 final success. Tom Maher / INPHO
Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
And as far the glass that Meath half filled by winning the Tailteann, the team the Royals face on Sunday are a reminder that winning the second tier championship is not some kind of fast track to becoming an elite team.
When Westmeath won the inaugural Tailteann Cup in 2022, it was an end to itself as much as a stepping stone to bigger things. They were ultra competitive in two Sam Maguire campaigns but without winning a single game and are now a team who hover between the top end of division 3 and the bottom half of Division 2.
That is where Kildare are too. Not so much between a rock and a hard place, but pitching their tent in the buffer zone between the promised land of the Sam Maguire and the badlands of lower tier football.
That is the thing about sampling schadenfreude, it also has quite the devilish aftertaste.
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Meath dancing to a different beat, Kildare a group hit by doubt
THEY SAY TO feel envy is human but to sample schadenfreude is devilish.
A couple of years back as Meath danced their jig of delight around Croke Park after beating Down in the Tailteann Cup final, it is likely among their Leinster peers that instead of inviting jealousy, it was used as a tape to measure how far the once mighty had fallen.
To be fair, caged inside a province subjected to Dublin’s authoritarian rule, if you could not take pleasure from the misfortune of others, you were likely not to take it at all.
Kildare’s comfort was that they were still kicking the ball out as the Sam Maguire team they had always been.
Within 12 months not only were Kildare playing in the Tailteann Cup, they were losing in it, dumped out by Laois in a quarter-final, which would mark the end for Glenn Ryan and the starting point for Brian Flanagan.
Thing is, you have to squint hard to see how much has changed. Kildare are back in the Sam Maguire but only because they have been able to play last season’s Tailteann Cup winning card having ended this spring back in Division 3 where Ryan had left them.
They meet Laois again this Sunday but even if they win it will not alter the perception that they are making up the numbers when the All-Ireland series throws in.
As for Meath, they are dancing to a different beat these times. They are not just a Division 1 team, they are the only Leinster county in the top tier next season.
They are playing like a Division 1 team as well to the point that for the first time in over two decades, the market gives them as much of a shout as Dublin to win Leinster.
Tailteann Cup
If Kildare are looking at a glass half full, they might hold the view that if winning the Tailteann Cup can do that for Meath, it can do the same for them.
Mind, that takes a lot of looking.
The chasm that now separates the two counties, that have always been touted as Dublin’s closest Leinster rivals, will not be bridged because both their names have been inscribed on the base of a second tier championship trophy.
Under Robbie Brennan, Meath have found certainty, organisation and belief, but only because they have assembled a high-quality squad that is even better than the one which reached the All-Ireland semi-final last year.
Certainty
That certainty is to be found in a team so established that 11 players started in every one of their eight games in winning Division 2, their organisation is evident in a game-plan that leans heavily on a capacity to compete man on man and to strike for scores outside the arc, and the belief is grounded in the hard evidence they have taken another step forward.
Sean Brennan’s displacement of Billy Hogan in goal has further weaponised their two-point threat, kicking seven of their 26 orange flag conversions this spring, while the return of Jack Flynn – who missed the last four championship games last year – has ensured that along with Brian Menton, Cian McBride, Adam O’Neill and Matthew Costello they have not only a beefed up midfield, but it is one that can sting too.
As for their bench, from where Jack O’Connor has excelled during the league, James Conlon’s four-point haul against Cork last month, allied to Ruairi Kinsella and Jordan Morris’ well signposted threats, reveals an attack to be feared.
In so many ways, Kildare feel like the polar opposite, a group hit by doubt, searching for an identity and with confidence levels floored after a spring in which they managed a solitary win over Division 2’s whipping boys Offaly.
Luck has not been their friend either. They have been dogged by injuries, which saw the likes of Ryan Sinkey, James McGrath and Ben McCormack miss large swathes of the spring, which came on top of the retired quartet of Niall Kelly, Mick O’Grady, Daniel Flynn and David Hyland.
Absence
The latter may well be the biggest miss, with Hyland’s absence in the centre of their defence sorely missed. No other team coughed up multiple two-point concessions in every match on the way to giving up 25 orange flags.
But it has been a complete system breakdown. In a game that has gone back to a more combative future, having a goalkeeper with a boot and man-mountain midfielders to hit has become critical.
Unfortunately, with the exception of hitting Kevin Feely who also endured an injury interrupted spring, when faced with a press Cian Burke has little choice but to punt off the kicking tee on the back of a wing and a thousand prayers.
Middle Eight
They simply do not have a functioning middle eight in terms of protecting their kick-outs which would ultimately condemn them to relegation as Cavan, and, in particular, Gearoid McKiernan went to town on their restarts in the defining Round 4 defeat.
A week later, they barely managed to post double digits when at the end of a 14-point hammering from Meath, exposing an attack that leans far too heavily on Brian McLoughlin and asks far too much of the exciting prospect that is Ben Loakman to give them something to defend.
While McCormack’s return offered hope, coming off the bench to kick a couple of two-pointers against Cork, he limped out of the final round loss to Louth to what is understood to be a recurring injury.
Looking for green shoots of hope requires a magnifying glass, although Jack Robinson, who spent last summer playing ball for New York, may add to their threat but, right now, that feels closer to a finger in the dyke than a silver bullet.
Even allowing for their misfortune, there is a bottom line that is becoming increasingly impossible to ignore, Kildare are simply not good enough to cut it at the highest level.
And as far the glass that Meath half filled by winning the Tailteann, the team the Royals face on Sunday are a reminder that winning the second tier championship is not some kind of fast track to becoming an elite team.
When Westmeath won the inaugural Tailteann Cup in 2022, it was an end to itself as much as a stepping stone to bigger things. They were ultra competitive in two Sam Maguire campaigns but without winning a single game and are now a team who hover between the top end of division 3 and the bottom half of Division 2.
That is where Kildare are too. Not so much between a rock and a hard place, but pitching their tent in the buffer zone between the promised land of the Sam Maguire and the badlands of lower tier football.
That is the thing about sampling schadenfreude, it also has quite the devilish aftertaste.
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