Kildare's Kevin Feely pictured at the launch of the Leinster SFC. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
By Cian O'Connell
In the middle of Newbridge, the home of Kildare GAA has been refurbished.
An eagerly anticipated Leinster SFC quarter-final against Westmeath is on the agenda on Saturday evening. Kevin Feely, such a reliable performer for the Lilywhites, acknowledges that the new stand and facilities are important.
There is something about Cedral St Conleth's Park. "A bigger difference than I thought it would actually," Feely says about the impact of the venue in 2025.
"The very first game we played here against Galway, we played a challenge match and it was the most pleasant surprise actually with the atmosphere, the amount of crowd that was there, the real sense of pride that it seemed like every player felt in having the facilities that we have now with the dressing-rooms and the new stand and the bigger pitch.
"It was a bigger sense of pride than I thought it would be and that carried over into the league and it definitely seemed to give us that little bit of an extra energy boost in the league games that we played here.
"Undoubtedly, our three home games were our three best performances in the league, so it's been huge for us I think."
Ultimately, Kildare earned promotion from a competitive Allianz Football League Division Three. A Croke Park final loss to a rejuvenated Offaly hurt, but what is Feely's assessment on the opening three months of the campaign? "Happy with promotion, that was definitely an overall take," Feely says.
"Disappointed with the games we lost in that they were all games we very easily could have won if we'd tidied up on a few different things.
"Certainly now you can't come away from either of the two Offaly games and not admit that Offaly were the better team in both of those games.
Kevin Feely is enjoying representing Kildare at the renovated Cedral St Conleth's Park. Photo by Thomas Flinkow/Sportsfile
"But having analysed them and you look at our conversion rates and the number of shots we're getting away, which is really high, but our conversion rate is really low, it's very easy to see why we lost both of those games.
"It was a similar story against Clare as well so hopefully those are things that we can tidy up with a little bit of extra practice, a little bit of analysis on our decision-making and stuff like that.
"In general the goal was absolutely to get promoted, that's been done. Yeah, we've had some roadblocks along the way but hopefully that's the only roadblocks we'll face in terms of getting our performance to be a little bit more consistent. Overall we're really happy with it."
The fact that so many emerging players are contributing in Brian Flanagan's panel offers another source of optimism. "Yeah, absolutely," Feely responds.
"It's probably been the first year for a long time where we've transitioned a lot of lads at the same time into the team.
"Where those lads that have come in they have had a huge impact straight away in terms of being regular starters straight away. Thinking of James McGrath, Colm Dalton, Ryan Sinkey.
"There's others as well, Harry O'Neill, Ryan Burke, who have basically come in and established themselves as nailed on starters and brought a kind of fearlessness and a freshness to their play as well.
"That, given the kind of scars we have from the last three years, was definitely lacking in us and they've certainly brought that instantly to the panel.
"So, it's the first time nearly since my own age or Niall Kelly, David Hyland's age that a big bunch of lads came through at the same time and have instantly made an impact. So hopefully it's a sign of a very bright future."
