Sharpshooter Kelly happy to be at the heart for vibrant Kildare attack as Meath showdown awaits

The four months since Kildare blitzed Meath in their own back garden in the opening round of this year’s National League have gone by quite quickly, and it’s fair to say that both teams have progressed nicely from that point.

The Royals were caught on the hop that evening by a finely tuned and well primed Kildare side that left Pairc Tailteann in Navan with 10 points to spare, but they have improved from that point as Andy McEntee’s methods start to take hold on his new team. They lost just once more in the league, gathered momentum with impressive wins over Derry, Galway and Clare, before carrying that through to their championship opener against Louth.

Key to the Lilywhites superb opening display on that evening in Navan was Niall Kelly, with the Athy man chipping in with 2-2 from play in a man of the match display. The centre-forward has been in fine form all year, and the fact that he has remained injury free has played a big part in his performances, with last season’s campaign disrupted by a niggling calf strain that stuck with him all through the championship.

“There really is a lot to be said for it,” Kelly said of his injury free status.

“It’s something I’ve kind of had over the last few years; I’ve had different injuries and things. Even though you might not think it at the time that it’s affecting you, you don’t have the sharpness that you would have when you’re putting back to back training and matches together.

“I’ve been quite lucky this year that I haven’t been affected too much with injuries; a few niggles here and there but they tend to happen to anyone. So far so good though, and touch wood it’ll stay like that for the rest of the year,” he continued.

Kelly and his teammates enjoyed a fine league campaign in which they had promotion wrapped up before the final round game away to Galway, but a loss to the same opposition in the league final came as a bit of a setback. For a team that had shown little vulnerability all year, that outing in Croke Park brought back some of the more worrying aspects of Kildare’s performances from last year.

“The league final was a big setback,” mused Kelly.

“It was a tough defeat to take after having a quite good league campaign, and we probably would have fancied ourselves coming into the game, so it was a tough one to take. Coming into the Laois game, it was a matter of reflecting on the league final, getting it out of the way and completely parking it and moving on and focusing on getting back that appetite for football.”

They went back to their clubs for a round of the Kildare championship a week later, and a trip to Portugal for a warm weather training camping in the weeks leading up to their championship opener against Laois helped to refocus the minds. Kelly took a lot from the week away, not just in terms of fine tuning tactics, but also being away from the distractions that everyday life in Kildare inevitably leads to.

“I thought it definitely did [help],” said Kelly.

“We had club championship the week after the league final and that kind of tends to break up the group a little bit for more than a week because it takes a while to get back into the swing of things then, so I thought that week away… just away from everything, any distractions, it helps and it brought a kind of freshness and togetherness to the group coming into the first championship game.

“It was definitely worthwhile anyway, and we’re all the better for it. Freshness coming into championship is the key thing really. You build up your fitness in the first few months of the year and throughout the league, it’s just a matter of sustaining it then and remaining injury free. I think we’re in a good place,” he continued.

When looking ahead to the game against Meath it seems primed for a shootout. The two sides struck 1-48 between them in their respective Leinster quarter-finals, and an open game would undoubtedly suit the diminutive Athy star as he is capable of sticking the ball between the posts from anywhere inside 50 metres if given half a yard of space.

“It’s geared up to be like that, but it doesn’t always turn out like that,” he said of the prospects of a high-scoring encounter.

“I’m sure they’ll be looking at us and making sure that we don’t score heavily and we’ll be the same looking at Meath. It’s great though, it’s a real championship game and there’s a real championship feel around Kildare anyway with just everyone talking about it. I suppose the fact that it’s in Tullamore on a Saturday evening could even draw more people towards it.

“Any time we play Meath, they put up a different challenge to anyone else. There’s nothing ever in it between Kildare and Meath, and we just have to relish the challenge and embrace everything that comes with it,” he said.

Kelly has earned plenty of praise since breaking onto the intercounty scene a short few years ago, with his elegant passing and shooting style a real hallmark of his game, and his ability to confidently kick off either foot something that catches the eye. In recent years he has flitted between the full-forward line and the half-forward line, but he has been entrusted with the number 11 jersey throughout this year, a position he is thriving in.

“I really am enjoying it,” smiled Kelly.

Kelly kicked 0-3 from play in the win over Laois

“I know throughout the league we obviously had a few lads here and there that couldn’t play for different reasons, but it is important and good to know which way lads are playing. It’s good to be there throughout the year and I suppose I don’t want to resting on my laurels. Cian has different challenges every game picking teams, so lads don’t want to make it easy on him to pick the team and it’s never that case. There are lads playing really well now and putting their hands up who maybe hadn’t throughout the year for different reasons, so there’s great competition there and hopefully it stays that way.”

The fact that the Lilywhites will be playing in Tullamore rather than a half empty Croke Park means that there should be a great atmosphere for the meeting with Meath, with many players publicly stating their preference for playing in O’Connor Park for just that reason. While Kelly sees the merits in that, he offers a different perspective on why it would be beneficial to be playing in GAA headquarters.

“There’s different ways to look at it,” he said.

“Just for the atmosphere and the crowd element, Tullamore would have a bit more of an atmosphere than Croke Park does. After playing early Leinster Championship games there the last few years it can tend to be a little bit empty and it feels like it’s just the players on the pitch.

“For that reason it’s great to be in Tullamore, but then when you want to succeed and play big games they are all in Croke Park. It would have been nice to be there for that reason, but I suppose you can look at it either way, but at the end of the day it’s the same as anywhere, it’s just a pitch with two goals.”

After Kelly hit three points from play in his last outing in Tullamore, Kildare fans will be hoping that his familiarity with the environment will bare more fruit this Saturday evening.