COLUMN: League final fallout and Kildare's near century away from Sam

Have we witnessed a potential changing of the guard, or just a minor blip, or is that simply a case of reading too much into one display, albeit a final at headquarters? ​

​The Allianz Football League is done and dusted for another year and it proven again it is a competition that captures the imagination of the public, of the players and of the various county managers.

There was a time when, it seemed, managers were happy to go through the motions in the league, happy to survive, in Division 1 at least, but the recent final between Donegal and Kerry certainly buried that concept.

Or did it?

One can suggest that for both Donegal and Kerry the real season starts from here but the more one looks back on the League decider one can come to the conclusion that Jim McGuinness arrived to Headquarters with the firm intention of making a statement, especially after getting things so wrong in last season’s All-Ireland final – against the same opposition.

He and the team certainly succeeded in that.

We will, no doubt, know more exactly where Donegal are in a few weeks time when they open their Ulster campaign against Down at the end of April.

No disrespect to Down but that Ulster provincial championship draw is exactly what Donegal would have hoped for and when you see Armagh taking on Tyrone in two weeks time in the first round it shows just what Donegal could have been facing so early in their quest for more provincial honours.

Both Donegal and Kerry, we were informed, headed off to the sun after the league final for a bit of warm weather training (Kildare travelled prior to the start of the League, back in November); not sure if they will be bumping into one another during their ‘break’ but can’t see Jack and Jim sitting down pool side for a chat enjoying a cocktail or two.

Don’t rule out Kerry coming back from topping up their collective tans in a different frame of mind but they will certainly be fully aware of the threat that Jim McGuinness’ side pose.

Jack O’Connor will also be aware that there could be another threat to his side's supremacy closer to home. Cork may have gone under to Meath in the Division 2 decider but they showed enough to suggest they are a serious side and one not to be taken too lightly.

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Going back to that Division 1 final and in particular after the long whistle when the two managers met to shake hands. Now there are ways of shaking hands and there are ways of shaking hands.

One is simply going through the motions, the other is a genuine handshake.

It certainly looked on the telly that Jack was going through the motions, he looked like a man who just wanted to get off the stage, off the sideline, out of the limelight, head home, head to Portugal or wherever, but it certainly did not look great to the ordinary viewer.

Speaking of shaking hands there is one man who springs to mind when it comes to a proper hand shake and that is the late great Dermot Earley.

Any time you met Dermot he would have the hand out immediately for a shake but his shake was like no other; Dermot Earley’s hand shake was intense, was genuine, a hand shake that left an impression, as the former Roscommon star would look you straight in the face with a welcoming smile as the recipient of the hand shake felt his hand had been swallowed up. Great man was Dermot.

Others could take note.

On another topic, glad to say a few people have been in contact over the past few weeks, always great to get a bit of feedback from readers.

First contact came from Naas native, whose admits that his passion outside of horses and Kildare football is rugby.

Joe Osborne, whose dad, Paddy trained in Craddockstown in Naas and enjoyed some great days, highlight probably being Brown Lad winning in Cheltenham while Deep Idol winning the Irish Champions Hurdle, back in the day

A member of both Naas RFC and Bective Rangers FC, Joe coaches the U10s at Naas and is the proud dad of Jamie and Andrew, both highly regarded Leinster players.

Joe attended the recent Kildare v Louth League game in Newbridge and said he was “very impressed with the new stand and facilities. However, the state of the pitch was a disgrace. I was shocked at how bad the playing surface was. The players deserve much better.”

On the football front, Joe added “I could not fault the players for their efforts. Having started the league campaign so well, I was genuinely hoping that we would be pushing for promotion to Division 1,” adding, “it's incredibly hard to stay in Division 2 let alone get into Division 1.”

Have to agree with you Joe, very disappointing; on the playing surface, work has commenced on rectifying the problem so hopefully we will see a big improvement in the coming weeks.

The other note received last week came for another proud Naas and Kildare man, Gus Fitzpatrick and it concerned last week’s article on Sam Maguire and his absence from Kildare for close to a century.

Gus reminds me that while Kildare have indeed won four All-Ireland’s they only brought ‘Sam’ to Kildare once, that, of course was in 1928, the first year that the All-Ireland winners received the Sam Maguire Cup. Incidentally before ‘28, there was no single established All-Ireland Football Trophy in the manner of the Sam Maguire Cup.

On that 1928 winning Kildare team, there were no less than five Naas club men involved, with Gus’ dad, also Gus, being one of them, the other lads being Dan Ryan, Jack Higgins, Tom Wheeler, Joe Curtis.

Gus also reminded us that Kildare played in six All-Ireland finals in succession from 1926 to 1929 which included two replays. No mean achievement insists Gus.

And how how right he is!