COMMENT: Football is blooming, but The Lilies remain in limbo land
Tommy Callaghan reflects on a brilliant intercounty football season while things closer to home still remain unclear
Both All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-finals sold out within three hours of going on sale, impressive or what. Proof, if proof were needed, how the game of football has been transformed with the introduction of the new rules.
It has certainly been a season, football-wise, like no other. Week-in and week-out, game-after-game, it has been unique, exhilarating and incredibly enjoyable.
Upsets by the bucketful, with just one provincial winner still standing in the search to see where Sam is going to spend the next 12 months.
Naming the four counties still standing has certainly proved beyond most pundits.
Yes, or course, Kerry would have been on most lists, no doubt.
Dublin? Apart from the diehard fans, most outside of the pale would not have included them on the short list.
Mayo, most people’s favourites (after their own county) are still standing and in fairness are there on merit, but again after losing to arch-rivals Roscommon in the provincial semi-final, few expected the green and red to make it to Croke Park on All-Ireland semi-final day.
And then there is Louth? What can one say?
Brilliant is the first word that comes to mind. A breath of fresh air is not too far behind.
There is an old saying that you will only reap what you sow and that certainly applies to the Wee County at this juncture. They have been magnificent.
Leinster champions of 2025, they looked all at sea in this season’s provincial semi-final, when taking a 10-point hammering from Dublin, at that time minus manager Ger Brennan.
Most wrote off the Boys in Red at that stage.
But in fairness, they re-grouped, re-focused and came back stronger than ever, chalking up impressive wins over Armagh and then Monaghan, booking their place in the All-Ireland SFC semi-final and a clash with Mayo.
Dublin, after losing to Westmeath in the Leinster final, were also put into the washed-up category for 2026 but then brought off probably the biggest shock of the season, at the time, when dispatching Jim McGuinness and Donegal; before sending Padraig Joyce’s Galway on an early summer holiday.
A brilliant weekend to look forward to now.
FAR REMOVED
As we now await the two big semi-finals, those of us in Lilywhite land have thoughts far removed from the All-Ireland semi-finals.
Needless to say it has been a very poor season for Kildare.
While there was disappointment in the provincial series and the All-Ireland series, it was the league display that was the most damaging.
And when you see what Dublin did to Galway, the Tribesmen having shown just how far the boys in white are off the pace in Salthill in the initial round.
Many in Kildare are still scratching their collective heads as to how the 2026 season has panned out.
Questions, questions, questions, but answers are scarce, as scarce as hens’ teeth.
County chairman, Mick Mullen, promised a full review of the 2026 season, emphasising that that is the norm. It is understood that the review has yet to commence.
We are told it will begin in a “week or two.”
It will certainly be interesting to see what, if anything, that review comes up with.
Or is it merely a going-through-the-motions exercise?
In fairness Brian Flanagan’s agreement with the then county chairman, Mick Gorman, was for a four-year term (with a review after each year) and one gets the impression that the Johnstownbridge man is anxious to continue on after his initial two years stint.
Opinion is divided of course, nothing unusual in that, and regardless what decision is arrived at opinion will remain divided, again nothing unusual in that.
Nevertheless one feels that changes, some changes at least, are not just needed but essential.
Whether that is at the very top, among the immediate management team, or in the extensive backroom team, which numbers no less than 19, on top of the five main men, we will have to wait and see.
(And that is before a review of the panel of 2026).
Whether Kildare will carry a management squad of 24 now that they will be operating in Division 3 is very much open to question.
Will there be some, small or large, cut-backs on the running of the county footballer team?
Whether that number would remain (24) when operating in Division 3 come 2027 will be interesting.
No doubt income will fall, and fall dramatically, due where Kildare find themselves now, dropped to around fifth, at best, in the Leinster pecking order, that along with operating in one division from the basement.
So, big, big decisions surely needed now.
On the hurling side of things, Kildare GAA have acted quickly in confirming that Brian Dowling will remain in charge of the Kildare senior hurling team for 2027.
The exciting news for Kildare hurling arrives less than 24 hours after Henry Shefflin was confirmed as the new manager of Dowling’s native Kilkenny.
Shefflin along with The Lilies’ boss, Tom Mullally, Mark Dowling and Noel Doherty all put their hat in the ring for the role a number of weeks ago and subsequently received club nominations.
The Kildare manager intimated his willingness to stay with The Lilies at the end of the 2026 season and Kildare GAA have now secured Dowling’s services for their second season in Division 1A and the Joe McDonagh Cup after their Leinster Senior Hurling Championship exploits.
Hurling fans in Kildare were keeping a close eye on proceedings in Kilkenny and will be delighted that another season under Dowling is in the offing.