Kevin Feely enjoying Kildare's 'carefree' approach
Kildare captain Kevin Feely with the Tailteann Cup at Croke Park. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
By Paul Keane
By the time Brian Flanagan got to the end of his first Allianz Football League campaign with Kildare last March, more than half of the 33 players he'd used had All-Ireland U-20 medals.
The New Kildare senior manager was always likely to look to youth having guided the county to All-Ireland U-20 finals in 2022 and 2023, winning the latter. Kildare previously won the All-Ireland U-20 championship in 2018 too.
At the other end of the age spectrum comes Kevin Feely who, as senior team captain, hopes to get his hands on the Tailteann Cup tomorrow at Croke Park.
The former soccer professional will be 33 next month though is quick to point out that he's not the oldest in the panel.
"Mick O'Grady is definitely a year older than me," smiled Feely. "Daniel (Flynn) is a year younger than me. He was (born in) '93, Micko is '91, I'm '92. David Hyland and Niall Kelly are '94."
The older crew have known good days and bad. Too many bad ones in recent seasons, in truth.
The three years under Glenn Ryan and his star studded management team yielded 37 League and Championship games and just 13 wins. Kildare suffered relegation from Division 1, in 2022, and Division 2, in 2024.
Under Flanagan, Kildare have played 14 competitive games and won 11 of them. Those games, of course, have been at a lower level than the teams of the past played at and nobody is under any illusions that there's still a distance for Kildare to travel in development terms but the mood and the vibes are positive.
"They are all young lads who are used to success, which is very helpful," said Feely of the U-20 graduates. "I even found it myself, that when I came from a successful underage Athy club team that we ended up forming the nucleus of an Athy senior team that won a couple of championships. So I think that definitely helps when young lads come in with a fresh attitude, fellas who are used to winning.
"They can help to change that mindset that is in the team, or that would have been in our team from the last three years of being on a downward slide. I think that freshness and almost carefree approach has been massive for us this year. But look, we are definitely still early in our development."
With a shiny new stadium in Newbridge also - the Kildare seniors won all six of their competitive games there this year - it's an exciting time for supporters. Who knows how far Kildare can go?
Kevin Feely soaring high for Kildare against Westmeath. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Feely is nearly a decade into his journey having first played senior football for Kildare in 2016 after returning from the UK where he'd played for a number of soccer clubs including Charlton Athletic.
So where did he envisage his Kildare career taking him at that stage?
"That's a good question," said midfielder Feely, pausing. "I came home expecting great things. Especially off the back of my own age group because we would have been Leinster U-21 champions and probably felt they left an All-Ireland behind them.
"They pretty much all became the senior team for a good while after that under Jason Ryan and Cian O'Neill. So the expectation for me was big but probably unrealistic as well. I was probably a little bit removed from everything being in the UK and didn't really see the challenge that was there.
"But look, expectation is justified. I think Kildare are a big football county that are entitled to feel like they should be competing more often than not. We did our best at different stages in the early parts of my career but probably never got to the full extent of what I thought we would. Hopefully there's a dawn of a new era now."
Lifting a piece of national silverware this weekend, having already secured promotion back to Division 2, would be a big step forward for Flanagan's evolving Kildare team. For starters, there would be that guarantee of Sam Maguire Cup football in 2026.
"I suppose any team in our situation, be it ourselves or Limerick going into this weekend, you don't look past this weekend, but the reward is also so big that you can't help but picture some of your goals coming into the following year," said Feely.
"But at the same time the punishment for losing is still fairly vast. There's no point in getting ahead of ourselves and trying to plan for next year or years down the line when we still have a huge challenge ahead of ourselves this weekend."
