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Kildare football manager Kieran McGeeney. INPHO/Cathal Noonan
GAA

Kildare boss Kieran McGeeney: I don't tend to walk away from things

The Armagh native is raring to go for another tilt at the Sam Maguire.

KILDARE FOOTBALL BOSS Kieran McGeeney says he never seriously considered walking away from the job after last year’s All-Ireland SFC disappointment.

The Armagh icon takes charge of the Lilywhites with a Leinster title again the benchmark this season.

“I suppose my own personality is that I don’t tend to walk away from things,” McGeeney told reporters this week when asked about his feeling’s in the wake of the championship defeat to Cork in the last eight. “I think Kildare have reached a level of consistency now that they never had.

“We’ve struggled in some of the big games and that could be down to me, you do look at these things. But the players wanted me back and I said ‘fair enough’. So I just went and had a look at different things, decided to change a few things about. We were able to do that in terms of the players. I’d been watching a lot of these players coming through over the last couple of years and I was keen to give them a chance and it’s worked out to date.”

And the former All-Ireland winning skipper with the Orchard says a provincial crown is the target but he reckons it’ll take a major effort.

“It is tough and I have said this before, when you are trying to change a culture, a mind-set,” he said. “Although, Kildare have fantastic footballers and a fantastic football tradition, results will prove otherwise with regards to inter-county structure.

“Apart from two years, they have not competed for an All-Ireland since 1928 and they have only two Leinster titles in the last 40/50 years. You are fighting against that but you have a group of players who are well capable of doing that. I am hoping that I will be part of that but it may not be but they are going to do it soon enough.

“Even in terms of preparing a team, it is no coincidence that over the last 20 or 30 years that it is the bigger counties that are the ones that come to the forefront. They have the bigger pick, they have more money and you are not allowed to mention those things because that is the nature of sport. You look at last weekend showed that with Wigan and Man City, you always have a chance and that is what keeps us all coming back.”

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