These are the dark days of the Leinster championship. The culchie teams in the province are collectively quivering underneath the flashy Dublin boot-heel. Anything other than an outright humiliation is regarded as a victory. The attendance at the recent Leinster Final indicates that even Dubs are getting bored of it.
It was a different world at the turn of the millennium when Kildare approached games with Dublin with no fear whatsoever.
On yesterday's edition of the Hard Shoulder, Balls.ie's weekly GAA podcast, Kildare great Johnny Doyle told presenters Anthony Moyles and Niall Kelly a story from his first season in an inter-county jersey, during the glory years at the turn of the century.
They face Dublin in the 2000 Leinster Final. According to Doyle, many players nowadays are exaggeratedly respectful of the Dublin players. Back in 2000, Glenn Ryan had a different attitude.
We all look at Dublin with huge admiration and would love to beat them. But I remember my first year on the Kildare team and we got to a Leinster Final and there was a players meeting. And someone was saying about Jason Sherlock and Dessie Farrell and I remember Glenn (Ryan) hitting the table a rap and saying 'Stop mentioning names here! It's their centre forward...' Just no respect. They didn't want to know about these players. We were talking them up. And he wasn't having any of it.
On the pod, he also talked about:
- he killed a few myths about Kieran McGeeney
- talked about Mick O'Dwyer's approach with Kildare in the 1990s (very different to now)
- why he chose to quit when he did at the end of the League in 2014
- he also tests his knowledge in the bitter-sweet 'Kildare heartbreak quiz'
Listen below:
Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.
He also gave a nice insight into how the nature of the sporting media has changed since his earliest days with Kildare.
When I started playing senior with Kildare, you were waiting for the (Leinster) Leader to come out and see what Tommy Callaghan said and, in fairness to Tommy, you'd meet him down there and he wouldn't be too hard on ya. Even though, you know yourself, you were taken off in the first half, but he'd throw in an oul' '6' there, worked his hardest!
John was speaking on the second episode of this year's Hard Shoulder podcast, a weekly GAA podcast hosted by Meath legends Anthony Moyles and Niall Kelly. The podcast will run for the rest of the season and will feature many more special guests, and scientists [citation needed] believe it will improve your life by somewhere in the region of 84%.
In addition to the big interview, we quiz our guests and discuss some of the big stories to arise from the past week.
On the first episode last week Bernard Brogan was interviewed about Dublin's dominance, his abilities vis a vis his brother Alan, and how he'd approach the game had he born in a different county. Listen here.
You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.
