The tone hasn't changed in his voice, and the message remains the same. When Joe Quaid raised eyebrows across the country nationwide by confirming that he would take the Kildare job, his first message was that it was going to be a three year plan.
The Limerick stalwart came into the role admittedly not knowing what to expect, but he had certain goals in his head that he wanted to achieve. During his first briefing with the media upon his appointment he said that retaining the county's place in Division 2A of the Allianz National Hurling League was the number one priority. The paucity of opposition in the Kehoe Cup this year also meant that winning that competition was a realistic aim too. Two goals set, two achieved. The aim for the Christy Ring Cup is slightly less defined, with Quaid saying that "whatever the Christy Ring Cup throws up then, it throws up". He followed that up by outlining that they will be going out to win it however.
Survival in Division 2A was not straight-forward. A disappointing defeat to Carlow arrived on the opening day of the league, followed by more comprehensive losses to Antrim and Westmeath coming either side of a drawn game away to London. That left the Lilywhites needing to beat Derry to retain their place in the division, and Quaid was pleased with the 'balls' they showed on that afternoon when they beat the Oak Leaf men by five points in a thrilling encounter.
"We kind of laid out our stall at the start of the year that we needed to stay up, not just for this year. I suppose Division 2A survival this year was vital for Kildare hurling for the next three or four years, because if you went back down you’d be fighting to come back up, and then you’d be fighting to survive again," remarked Quaid.
"To be fair if a couple of results had went better, we probably had a chance to beat Carlow, we should have beaten London, the Derry match we won. So we could have been there or there abouts looking for a final place. The main thing was when it came down to the Derry match, it was a must win and I suppose from my perspective, I questioned the lads, and I questioned them publicly if they had the balls to dig out a tight match. To be fair, they proved that they had against Derry. With seven minutes to go there was only a point or two in it, Derry were coming on top, but to be fair the lads dug in and I think we won by five points in the finish," he said.
The Kildare boss was speaking at the launch of Kildare GAA's new partnership with Ballygowan and Energise Sport.Kildare face Antrim in the first round of the Christy Ring Cup on Saturday April 23, and while the Saffrons are the favourites for the competition in many people's eyes, their preparation has been far from ideal. Manager PJ O'Mullan walked out on the team less than two weeks ago, while one of their star players, Liam Watson, left the panel due to players allegedly being "asked to take pay cuts" and he "wasn't happy with the way things were going." The Antrim County Board have since refuted the claims, but it is clear that all is not well up north.
It seems to be the perfect time to play Antrim, but Quaid says they are still a dangerous side under interim manager Terence McNaughton, labelling the Saffrons as favourites.
"There’s a lot of hassle up there at the moment. That can work two ways. It can absolutely destroy a team, but if you look at the calibre of people coming in to take him over, like Sambo[Terence McNaughton]. Any fella with decent Antrim blood in him will play for Sambo. The end of the day, the Christy Ring is wide open. I would say Antrim are the favourites to win it. To win it, we’ll either have to beat them once or twice," he said.
Kildare hurling has faced many problems over the years. The fact that football is the predominant sport in the county is admittedly the leading challenge facing hurling, but the new manager is hoping that the way he runs the team will lead to more players wanting to come in a play for the county side. Has he seen much progress in his initial months in terms of the players he has on the panel however?
"Without a doubt. We put in a three year plan for this. Yes, am I pulling the small bit of hair I have on me out at times with stuff we’re working on and it’s not coming to the level that we want it to? Yeah, but it is coming. It’s a slow burner. We’ve identified kind of the basics of the game where we want to get back to. It is coming, and the lads have bought into it, that’s the main thing."
"They’re the ones driving the thing. It has to be, players have to drive it. If you’re there and you’re ruling with an iron fist, especially hurling in Kildare. It’s not like Kilkenny where you can crack the whip and get rid of 10 fellas and there’s 10 more beating down the door to come in. What we’ve tried to do is to make it attractive for the lads, that they want to come training, that they’re learning when they come training and hopefully next year that more guys will want to come in. We won’t be chasing guys like we were this year to get them to come in," he concluded.
Kildare get their Christy Ring campaign underway against Antrim on April 23, a game which was initially scheduled to take place in Antrim. There is a strong possibility that the game may be moved to Dublin however as both the Antrim and Kildare footballers will be playing in their respective league finals on that afternoon.
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