With just a number of days to go to Kildare’s showdown with Kerry in the All-Ireland minor semi-final the excitement is building in the county as Brendan Hackett and his management team pull together the final details before their second successive semi-final appearance.
The young Lilywhites are aiming to make it into an All-Ireland final for the first time since 1973, which was Kildare’s last and only appearance in the showpiece event. They were agonisingly close to achieving that feat last year, but they lost out to Tipperary at the same stage. Hackett believes that this year things are different, and while his side probably peaked for the Leinster final in 2015, the 2016 version are getting stronger as the year progresses.
“All good,” was Hackett’s simple description of his side’s preparation ahead of the semi-final. “Everybody is available, so preparation has gone really well. I couldn’t have asked for better really,” he continued.
“We’re meeting a stronger team and we’re meeting the champions obviously, but I think that preparation has gone well,” he said when comparing the build-up to this year’s semi-final in comparison to 2015.
“I think the team is fresher this year. Last year it seemed like we had a longer campaign and this year we didn’t start quite as early so it seems like the team is improving, whereas I don’t think we were improving this time last year. I just think we were kind of holding on. We probably hit our peak last year in the Leinster final, whereas this year I think we’re still improving so that’s the big difference.”
Hackett feels his team are in a better place than this time last year.There is plenty of experience in this Kildare team, with Brian McLoughlin, Ciaran Kelly and Jimmy Hyland all playing pivotal roles throughout the 2015 championship, while the team as a whole have had two games in Croke Park already this year, so new surroundings won’t be an issue. With Kerry in the senior semi-final against Dublin straight after there is likely to be a large support for the Munster men in the stands, but Hackett is not worried about that.
“We’ve been in Croke Park. We were there last year and we’ve been in there this year so everybody has got experience of Croke Park; that’s a big bonus. The crowd doesn’t matter really because they’re not in there at the start. We play to a virtually empty stadium; you know it’s very quiet. With Dublin playing the Dublin crowd won’t really be in at all, so that doesn’t cause us any major hassle.”
“At this stage Kerry would have good support. It won’t affect us really in the sense that we have a job to do, and particularly in the quarter-final there was a good Kildare crowd there. There is a hard core of supporters there that have followed the minors through the last few games and I think they’ll make themselves heard.”
Kildare enjoyed a relatively comfortable victory over Mayo in the All-Ireland quarter-final three weeks ago, but the loss of Jimmy Hyland to a black card in the first half threatened to derail their challenge. Hyland has been the main scoring forward for Kildare this year, but Jack Robinson and Ciaran Kelly stepped up impressively to carry the scoring burden.
Their manager was pleased with their display, but he credits the team as a whole for their performances throughout the year.
“One of the things that probably stands out as the key, and if you want to be in an All-Ireland final, you have to have a number of forwards. You can’t be really relying on one forward, and this is a really balanced team.”
“You can’t be relying on one forward on any given day, any of them are capable of scoring. Certainly four or five of them are capable of scoring anything up to fix or six points on a day, now you don’t know how that’s going to play out though. It’s a quality forward line, an excellent midfield and I’ve always been highlighting the defence because we have a really good defence,” said the former Westmeath senior manager.
Jack Robinson has been one of Kildare's star performers this year.Hackett is hopeful that the tough encounters against Mayo and Meath this year will serve them in good stead, especially when you consider that Kerry would have enjoyed a more straightforward passage to this stage, with no opponent coming within six points of them.
“It was a much harder quarter-final than last year’s quarter-final, and there’s no doubt the Leinster semi-final was a tough game. We were pushed all the way by Meath in extra-time and when a team comes through games like that, I’m hoping it will stand to us. Kerry have had a smoother passage thus far and I’m just hoping the pressure that we were under will stand to us,” said Hackett.
The Lilywhites go in to Sunday’s showdown as massive underdogs against the All-Ireland champions, but they are sure to have a massive chance if they manage to perform to a level approaching their best. Hackett conferred with that sentiment, and he is sure that they will do themselves justice on Sunday.
“It’s all on the day. 2016 has shown so far that there has been plenty of surprises. It’s going to be a tricky game but I’d be really optimistic with this team.”
“If we perform and play to the best of our ability that is all I can ask of the team. I think we will, and if we do perform to our ability we’re a very exciting team and hopefully Sunday will prove that,” concluded Hackett.
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