Flanagan happy to play long game with Lilywhites
Alex Beirne of Kildare in action against John Furlong of Offaly. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
Brian Flanagan is happy to play the long game with Kildare.
The Lilywhites' Croke Park display may have smacked of the Kildare we have become accustomed to in recent seasons - lots of potential, no prizes - but it's a young group.
A dozen of the 33 players that have featured in this season's Division 3 campaign competed in either the 2022 or 2023 All-Ireland U-20 finals, some in both. Five more were All-Ireland U-20 winners in 2018.
They couldn't combine to put Offaly away, despite creating more than enough chances, but Flanagan, who guided those U-20 teams in 2022 and 2023, is confident it will eventually come good.
"We're not shying away from the facts at all, that shot selection or execution isn't where the top teams are at," said Flanagan. "But as a management we came into this job knowing the job that we had and everything else. We didn't expect it to be a quick fix. We didn't expect it to be an overnight success or anything like that.
"We're not in it for that, we're in it to work with these boys over the next couple of months and years to develop something that can deal with days like today a little bit better.
"I do believe it will change and I do believe that if you view the league as a whole, it has been quite a successful league for us in that our number one goal was promotion. We got that, the number two goal was to win the Division 3 league final. We didn't do that, we came up short.
"But as part of that, we have blooded a lot of players, we've developed a squad, we have got game time into a lot of lads. And I think we're in a far better place now that we were three months ago. So listen, you have to be rational about this and take a step back.
"It's only the end of March, we have two championships essentially coming our way. Right now, the minds just have to turn straight away and get ready for Westmeath in two weeks."
Like Offaly, Kildare need to reach the Leinster final in the coming weeks to avoid another season of Tailteann Cup football. Flanagan didn't want to discuss the Tailteann situation, insisting their sole focus is on Westmeath in under a fortnight.
"I think they've been the most unlucky team in the country," he said of Westmeath. "They play a really good style and they've registered big scores in almost all of their league games."
