Messages

RTE have agreed to increase their racing coverage recently. They showed the Hattons Grace at Fairyhouse last month for the first time in years and are showing the Thyestes in a few weeks.

The only positive outcome of the RUK deal for the ordinary viewer was HD output although that now is a moot point because Sky Sports are broadcasting the old ATR in HD. On days when there are multiple meetings Irish racing will not be prioritised like it was on ATR. ATR had none of the premier English tracks so it was only natural that they gave Irish racing their full attention. RUK do not have that luxury with the number of tracks they possess and our meetings will be shunted onto their online platform on big days - the last at Tramore on Tuesday was not broadcast live.

The Morgiana at Punchestown will clash with the Open Meeting at Cheltenham. Stephen's Day at Leopardstown and Limerick with Kempton. The Irish Champion Hurdle with the Scilly Isles at Sandown. The Ballysax at Leopardstown frequently clashes with the Aintree National. The Punchestown Festival will often clash with the Whitbred at Sandown and some years with the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. Galway will clash with Goodwood etc. Irish punters will lose out on those days.

For the wider industry, this deal is not as significant as it seems at the moment. The money keeping our rural tracks afloat is from the pictures being supplied to betting shops across the UK and at home. However a large percentage of shops are probably facing an uncertain future with the restrictions on FOBTs in the UK and here with the doubling of betting tax from this month. If that income stream dries up, there will be plenty of tracks in trouble.

[A deserved break for Niall.]

Niall Kelly has gone but there's a good chance Dan Flynn will be around for a while yet.

Feck, hadn't heard about Kelly. Just giving it up or is he leaving the country?

Back for the championship, 6 months traveling. A deserved break for Niall.

Agreed. After a poorish 18 months for a player of his ability he was beginning to hit form during the Super 8s and he was very good in the club championship. Break should do him good. His absence will give plenty of opportunities for the likes of McCormack and Hyland to step up.

Niall Kelly has gone but there's a good chance Dan Flynn will be around for a while yet.

Could potentially see Kildare trying to blood at least 1/3 of the 2018 u20s. Jimmy Hyland should feature prominently and can see Aaron O'Neill, Mark Dempsey, Ruadhan Ó Giolláin and Aaron Masterson getting games. Given the likely level of experimentation I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up mid-table.

Mick O'Grady likely to prove the most difficult of our absentees to replace. He developed into a pivotal player for us in the last year or two. It's a double whammy because it probably stops us from freeing up David Hyland to a more attacking role. Have to hope that Peter Kelly stays injury free and Dempsey develops.

[Van der Flier]

I honestly don't know but few other other sports define nationality so loosely. Cricket possibly.

Personally I don't think Aki, Stander or Van der Flier should be playing in a green jersey. They aren't Irish and have no bloodline connection with the country. Other than being bought by a provincial side to make a living here, they would be lining out for their own countries.

However those are the rules even if I strongly disagree with them.

[I presume O'Grady and Byrne would both be regarded as big losses by Kildare lads?]

Disappointing that Mick O'Grady and Johnny Byrne are opting out this year along with Daniel Flynn being doubtful (not that any individual should be criticised for giving something more important in their life some priority!)

I presume O'Grady and Byrne would both be regarded as big losses by Kildare lads?

Going to be difficult to continue to progress if losing players.

O'Grady will be a loss. He has developed into a fine full back. Mark Dempsey should come through although it's a big step into the senior ranks.

Byrne finished the year strongly but it's an area where we should have enough options. James Murray, Ruadhan O Giollain and Shea Ryan have the potential to make an impact like Kevin Flynn did this year.

Flynn opting out would be a blow. The consolation would be it would allow us to move Brophy back to the full forward line where he is more at home.

[Peter Kelly]

Didn't think Doyle was the best Kildare defender on show this year. Maybe I didn't see enough of them, but I would have chosen Peter Kelly.

I would have said Kevin Flynn but he's probably not a big enough 'name' yet. On Peter Kelly, it's long odds on that he will remain the only current player in Leinster outside of Dublin with an All Star to his name.

Pitman-Moore Park.

Looks great alright. Link not working for me, when do they expect it'll be ready and how long will Newbridge be out of action for? (thinking about a potential Leinster QF next year of KE v Dubs)

Timeline as of last December's County Convention:

The project is expected to take around 29 months, with the completion of the new stand pencilled in for April 2020. The planners are hoping to appoint a design team at the beginning of January 2018.

My understanding is that there will be no games played in Newbridge after the completion of next year's league.

Couple of Qs, the article doesn't state where the money will come from and 2, if the capacity will increase?

Financial breakdown:

The total cost of the project, as outlined by Padraig McManus at the Kildare GAA County Convention on Thursday night, will come in at around €6.85 million, though the project managers are putting plans in place for the event of the fees rising up to €7.5 million. The construction phase of the project will be the most costly, coming in at an estimated €5.4 million, while VAT at 13.5 pc means that it will rise to just under €6.2 million. The additional costs involved in the project are for professional fees, with McManus stating that they will be around 8.9 pc of the cost, which would amount to €486,000, and when allowing for specialist services and VAT at 23 pc, this would rise to just under €650,000.

The county board aim to raise a third of the money for the redevelopment themselves through fundraising, another third from grants and the rest through loans. They are confident that Croke Park will front up a sizeable amount of money to put towards the project, while they will also look to the government for assistance.

The target is for Club Kildare to raise €2.3 million.

The capacity will rise to 15,000 at the completion of the project. Opening up the entrance down by Ryston which is currently blocked up will ease access from the south of the ground.

Éamonn Callaghan, Kildare's last link to the Micko era.

A great day for Kildare football and just reward for the work started by Bryan Murphy and Syl Merrins over ten years ago. Hopefully this is not just a once off and we can push on now and consistently challenge at All Ireland level at minor and u20. Naas CBS winning the Leinster colleges this year bodes well for the future.

Obviously Jimmy Hyland has generated huge hype over the last few weeks and he lived up to all expectations on Sunday. He had that natural ability at schools level and at minor a few years ago but there was a fear that the cruciate injury would blunt his development. Not a bit of it. Physically he added a bit of bulk and he now looks a senior footballer in waiting. There will be plenty of corner backs from intermediate clubs around Kildare having sleepless nights thinking about the prospect of marking Jimmy over the next few weeks!

Brian McLoughlin and Aaron Masterson should make an impact at senior level once they fill into their frames a bit more. Going on his displays for Moorefield in the Leinster club championship, Mark Dempsey could have probably done a job for the Kildare seniors this year but credit to the senior management for resisting the temptation to throw himself and Hyland in after the Carlow debacle. Aaron O'Neill and Mark Barrett are still underage next year and I'd be inclined to take the same course of action again and leave them with their own age group.

Ruadhan Ó Giolláin was desperately unfortunate and he is another I think can make the step up next year. It was a nice touch by the team to visit him on the journey home. This group appear quite tightly knit and Davy Burke and his management team have excelled themselves as the year has gone on. This looked a long way off when we were leaking goals to Laois and Meath during the Leinster championship but the management learned and made the necessary changes. A feature of this team's run has been the impact that players off the bench have had. That was in evidence again on Sunday with John O'Toole in particular having a big impact despite his loss of form earlier in the campaign.

They certainly earned this All Ireland having beaten Dublin, Kerry and Mayo. Mayo had a few players who look like they have the potential to make an impact over the next few years. I thought the centre back Cathal Horan and the centre forward Ryan O'Donoghue were impressive and did more than most to keep Mayo in the game right until the end. I feel a bit of sympathy for Jordan Flynn. You can't condone what he did but Sunday might possibly be the biggest game he will ever play in and he will have to live with that memory for the rest of his life. The Mayo crowd sitting beside me said that he was known to have a short fuse and you could see that after half time. He took John O'Toole out of it with a late tackle under the Cusack Stand early in the second half and got involved with Jimmy Hyland a few minutes before the sending off. He'll get a long ban for the two incidents with the referee and rightly so but hopefully he'll learn from it.

Will Davy Burke be in charge next year, interesting to say what he could do with those players? Leinster will be competitive next year as there was no outstanding minor team in 2017 (Dublin won it but during their run only beat Meath by 2 after extra time and Kildare by 5. Meath were the dominant u17 team last year beating Kildare by 4 and Dublin by 5. Laois could be thereabouts as well, two decent teams in 2017.

Also the group stages in Leinster will allow teams develop and a great addition, without it Kildare would not have won the AI.

I'd hope Burke will be in charge again next year. A lot depends on Cian O'Neill. If the senior job becomes available then Burke will definitely be on the shortlist.

Aaron O'Neill, Mark Barrett, DJ Earley, Daragh Ryan, Shane O'Sullivan, Jack Barrett and Jack Cully are eligible again by my reckoning. Possibly one or two others.

A great day for Kildare football and just reward for the work started by Bryan Murphy and Syl Merrins over ten years ago. Hopefully this is not just a once off and we can push on now and consistently challenge at All Ireland level at minor and u20. Naas CBS winning the Leinster colleges this year bodes well for the future.

Obviously Jimmy Hyland has generated huge hype over the last few weeks and he lived up to all expectations on Sunday. He had that natural ability at schools level and at minor a few years ago but there was a fear that the cruciate injury would blunt his development. Not a bit of it. Physically he added a bit of bulk and he now looks a senior footballer in waiting. There will be plenty of corner backs from intermediate clubs around Kildare having sleepless nights thinking about the prospect of marking Jimmy over the next few weeks!

Brian McLoughlin and Aaron Masterson should make an impact at senior level once they fill into their frames a bit more. Going on his displays for Moorefield in the Leinster club championship, Mark Dempsey could have probably done a job for the Kildare seniors this year but credit to the senior management for resisting the temptation to throw himself and Hyland in after the Carlow debacle. Aaron O'Neill and Mark Barrett are still underage next year and I'd be inclined to take the same course of action again and leave them with their own age group.

Ruadhan Ó Giolláin was desperately unfortunate and he is another I think can make the step up next year. It was a nice touch by the team to visit him on the journey home. This group appear quite tightly knit and Davy Burke and his management team have excelled themselves as the year has gone on. This looked a long way off when we were leaking goals to Laois and Meath during the Leinster championship but the management learned and made the necessary changes. A feature of this team's run has been the impact that players off the bench have had. That was in evidence again on Sunday with John O'Toole in particular having a big impact despite his loss of form earlier in the campaign.

They certainly earned this All Ireland having beaten Dublin, Kerry and Mayo. Mayo had a few players who look like they have the potential to make an impact over the next few years. I thought the centre back Cathal Horan and the centre forward Ryan O'Donoghue were impressive and did more than most to keep Mayo in the game right until the end. I feel a bit of sympathy for Jordan Flynn. You can't condone what he did but Sunday might possibly be the biggest game he will ever play in and he will have to live with that memory for the rest of his life. The Mayo crowd sitting beside me said that he was known to have a short fuse and you could see that after half time. He took John O'Toole out of it with a late tackle under the Cusack Stand early in the second half and got involved with Jimmy Hyland a few minutes before the sending off. He'll get a long ban for the two incidents with the referee and rightly so but hopefully he'll learn from it.

Over the moon with that win. Long overdue.

Anytime I've watched Kildare I always think there's something there, plenty of potential.

New management next year and some squad reinforcements to come in. No 1st teamers at obvious retirement age yet either so hopefully we can have a good team next year.

New management?

O'Neill's term is up and enough people are 100% sure (I'm not fully convinced myself) he is gone to Munster rugby for me to guess he is gone.

Tommy Callaghan reported that O'Neill has completely dismissed that link.

Anytime I've watched Kildare I always think there's something there, plenty of potential.

New management next year and some squad reinforcements to come in. No 1st teamers at obvious retirement age yet either so hopefully we can have a good team next year.

New management?