David Hyland: 'We were sick to our teeth over Leinster'
Kildare defender David Hyland is satisfied with the progress Tailteann Cup semi-finalists Kildare have made in a short space of time.
The Lilywhites were beaten by Offaly in the Division 3 league final in late March and then exited the Leinster championship to Louth.
But they've since blazed a trail through the Tailteann Cup and will meet Fermanagh in Sunday's semi-final at Croke Park.
Hyland said Kildare's sweet quarter-final win over Offaly, turning the tables on two previous losses to the Faithful this season, proved just how much their young group has come on.
"If you look at the performance we put in that day in the league final, and the performance we put in last weekend, it's chalk and cheese," said centre-back and ex-captain Hyland. "The development of the team has come a long way in the last two months or so."
Kildare have clearly taken the Tailteann Cup seriously and appear desperate to win it.
"We were sick to our teeth with the way Leinster turned out," continued Hyland. "We played the first two games of the Tailteann Cup and then after the Tipperary game we sat down on the Monday night and said, 'Look, we have an eight-week block now to go and win the Tailteann Cup'.
"We talked about what that means for this team's development and also that it would secure Sam Maguire Cup football next year because that's ultimately why we're here, what we want to do.
"After that, it was all shoulders to the wheel really. So I think it was that third game really where we knuckled down and said, 'Right, this is what we're after, four more games, let's go and win this Tailteann Cup'."
Yet the experienced Athy man said that with silverware now in sight, they haven't allowed their focus to drift beyond Sunday's semi-final.
"We can't because we haven't performed very well in Croke Park over the last number of years," he said. "So we need to get that off our back. And it's going to be a huge challenge obviously. It's all top teams that are left in the competition."
Kildare have lost five league and championship games in a row at Croke Park since last winning a game there, a 2022 Leinster semi-final against Westmeath.
And prior to that they'd lost 17 of their 24 Croke Park outings, across the league and championship, since contesting an All-Ireland semi-final in 2010.
But boss Brian Flanagan has a talented bunch of young players at his disposal, many of whom contested All-Ireland U-20 finals in 2022 and 2023, winning the latter. Several more were U-20 winners in 2018.
The Tailteann Cup may even be the best environment for those young players to learn their trade, though Hyland isn't sure.
"I tend to disagree with that," he said. "I think the young guys we have here at the moment would be well able to mix it with the likes of a Down, a Clare, some of the teams that are in the Sam Maguire this year. We have to play the cards we were dealt obviously but I think that would have brought us on a bit more if we were in it."
Attacker Jimmy Hyland looks set to miss out again with a lower leg injury and there are question marks over the fitness of Callum Bolton, Ben McCormack and Ryan Houlihan.
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