Kevin Feely Aims for All-Ireland Medal as Kildare Faces Limerick in Tailteann Cup Final

Kevin Feely is hoping to put an All-Ireland medal in the cabinet this weekend in the knowledge it could be part of building a future for the county. The Lilywhites were runners-up for Sam Maguire in 1998 and have 13 Leinster titles to their name. But outside of the early 20th century, it has been a nearly-men for what too long for Kildare. They hit a low in recent seasons by dropping to Division 3 and successive defeats to Louth in the Leinster Championship. The Tailteann Cup beckoned this year and with it the chance to build some momentum, having already won a league crown. Meath have shown what an impact winning the Tailteann can have by reaching a semi-final with Donegal on Sunday on the big stage, just a year on for lifting the trophy. Kildare v Limerick will be the show-opener, rather than the main event, two hours before the clash of Kerry and Tyrone. Victory for Feely and his team-mates would guarantee a place in the 2026 Sam Maguire, but asked whether lifting a trophy would mean more, the now 32-year-old Feely said it is in his head the clock is ticking on what can be achieved in his own career. \"Right now, as you're asking, the All-Ireland medal sounds like something that appeals more than the Sam Maguire place,\" he admitted. \"Maybe that's just my age kind of kicking in. I know that there's not too long left and having an All-Ireland medal as a kind of a reminder of something that we achieved with Kildare is probably the thing I would treasure most.\" Kevin Feely is hoping Kildare can finished an improved season in style. There is the consolation for Kildare that, if Limerick do cause an upset in Saturday's clash at Croke Park, that they will have still another opportunity to contest the All-Ireland series next year. Retaining a Division 2 place would be enough to achieve it, yet this final can put that to bed early doors. The factor in Feely’s mind is simply for a changing Kildare team to perform on a big day. \"It's completely in our own hands already,\" he said of their future. \"Being in Division 2 means we're in a position that we can guarantee Sam Maguire football regardless of what happened this weekend, so that's a nice place to be in, but at the same time, it's a long way away from now. So our main focus is on making sure that we kind of express ourselves to the fullest this weekend in Croke Park and produce a performance that we feel like is coming. It has definitely been a successful year to date. We achieved our number one goal with getting promotion. We played well in Leinster, which was important to us. We've probably gone a couple of years where we haven't expressed ourselves well and just been beaten by a more experienced team who were kind of ready to win Leinster. \"Louth were probably a bit further on in their development than us and then we approached the Tailteann Cup with a really positive mindset and have kind of built a nice bit of momentum coming into this weekend.\" The Wee County’s success, as well the Royals’, means Kildare have been left behind somewhat within their province. That has been hurtful for Feely and his team-mates, unable to avoid the scenes in Croker as Dublin were finally moved away from top performer. That hope had been for so long that it would be Kildare to step into the breach, rather than other rivals. \"It was definitely hard,\" he explained. \"As players we might have said we weren't going to watch the follow-up games, but everyone was glued to that Leinster final, and it was hard to watch two teams that we would feel like we were kind of in and around the same kind of playing level as us going at it for Leinster. \"But sometimes you just have to accept that it is where we are. They're a little bit ahead of us, both Louth and Meath, at the moment based on this year. \"We've got a lot of work to do to try and get to their level but it was hard to take at the time. At the same time you can't help but be a little bit inspired by how well both teams have done since.\" Limerick await this weekend, another county benefiting from the second tier competition. Feely understands why Kildare are favourites, while being wary of the strengths of the Munster outfit. \"We're one division ahead of Limerick at the moment, but they're probably coming into the game with almost the exact same levels of momentum that we are in terms of coming off the back of promotion and some huge results in the Tailteann Cup. \"They're showing a scoring prowess that is nearly unmatched in Tailteann this year. They've some absolutely elite forwards there that we'll need to manage and do our best to curtail. So we're under no illusions as to how big a challenge it's going to be this weekend. \"I think there's a nice sense of confidence building within the group that we're laying the foundations to hopefully kick on in the years to come. We were starting from a low enough position, so you'd like to think that we were going to turn things around and move on to up this year. \"It's definitely been brought on by a lot of the younger players coming in and just bringing a freshness and enthusiasm and playing almost kind of a carefree style of football that I think we were badly in need of this year.\" Watch the Tailteann Cup final, Limerick v Kildare, on Saturday from 2.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.