Re-entry into football's top-tier must only be the beginning for Kildare
Saturday confirmed what we all suspected since the throw-in of the 2025 season. This is not Kildare's level. They are not a Division 3 League outfit. They are not a tier two championship side.
Less certain are we, though, as to how much above this level Kildare actually are.
Escape from the League's Division 3 was only achieved via scoring difference. Offaly subsequently denied them Division 3 silverware.
The one still-Division 2 outfit they ran into all year - Louth - bettered them in the Leinster semi-final. Bettering Limerick on Saturday required a Brian Byrne half-block right on the hooter to prevent an equalising goal.
So, while the verdict on this year of rehabilitation came back as expected, the jury remains out on the inroads and impact Kildare can make when returning to football's upper echelons in 2026.
Right now, nobody is envisaging a Meath-esque run. Even emulating their Tailteann Cup predecessors, Down, and lasting 12 rounds with a Division 1 outfit in the last 12 of Sam Maguire does not look within their capabilities.
The counter-argument to that is the value of Saturday's win and the extent to which it can lift a young side unburdened by Kildare's unfulfilled past.
Eight of Saturday's starting team, plus second-half subs Jack McKevitt and Eoin Cully, featured in either the 2022 or '23 All-Ireland U20 final.
At the start line of their senior inter-county careers, and with a strong guiding hand from Kevin Feely, Alex Beirne, and Darragh Kirwan, they have delivered the county's first piece of senior silverware since the 2012 Division 2 League crown and first piece of championship silverware since the provincial triumph of 25 years ago.
Further scars of the past have been healed and erased. A first pair of back-to-back Croke Park championship wins since 2010. In the intervening 15 years, they'd lost 20 of their 27 summer HQ outings.
And so, re-entry into football's high society is only the beginning for this Kildare group, announced Brian Flanagan.
Kildare captain Kevin Feely lifts the cup after his side's victory in the Tailteann Cup final match between Kildare and Limerick at Croke Park. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
'It is year one of what we hope will be four, and maybe more, but winning and lifting silverware was so, so important so you had that in the mentality and in the psyche going forward, because there's much bigger challenges lie ahead for us,' said the year one Kildare boss.
'What this year has done is proven that we deserve to be there in Division 2 and Sam Maguire. We've earned our spot in both. We didn't get it easy. We had to beat the best teams. I felt the winner of the Tailteann Cup was going to come from Westmeath, Offaly, Sligo, Fermanagh.
"We beat Westmeath in Leinster, we beat the other three throughout this journey. Dealing with pressure and expectancy is something they've come through.
'People spoke about Croke Park having a bit of a hoodoo over Kildare teams in the last decade or more, so having back-to-back wins here now, for the psyche of the group, can only be a positive going forward.
'We're ambitious. We want to play as many games as we can here, but we know that there's a step up going into year two, but that's something we relish.'
The psyche of the group was challenged in front of a swelling Croke Park crowd when Killian Ryan goaled for a two-point Limerick lead on 47 minutes. The Lilywhites had commanded a first-half lead of seven and second-half lead of five. Now they were chasing.
Composure won out. A touch of class too. Nothing spectacular, but rather an at times confident execution of the simple when so many others were falling on this front.
Limerick got off 11 shots following Ryan's goal. Four white flags was their 36% return. Danny Neville and Barry Coleman's two-point efforts fell short. Darragh Murray's goal drive was blocked. The four remaining opportunities went wide.
Kildare, for contrast, engineered 14 scoring opportunities. Their return was 50%. Darragh Kirwan kicked a two-pointer into the breeze to tie matters at 2-15 to 1-18 immediately after the aforementioned Limerick two-point fails.
'It's everything that I would have wanted coming back from soccer,' said former professional-turned Kildare captain Kevin Feely. 'In my 10th or 11th season playing for Kildare, we finally get some silverware.'
Scorers for Kildare: D Kirwan (0-8, 2 tps); A Beirne (1-2); B McLoughlin (tp), R Sinkey (0-3 each); C Bolton (tp), K Feely (free), C Dalton (0-2 each); T Gill, D Flynn (0-1 each).
Scorers for Limerick: C Fahy, K Ryan (1-1 each); J Ryan (tp free, 0-1 '45), P Nash (free), J Naughton (0-2 frees), T McCarthy (0-3 each); E Rigter (0-2); T Childs, D Neville, R O'Brien (0-1 each).
KILDARE: C Burke; R Burke, H O'Neill, B Byrne; T Gill, D Hyland, J McGrath; K Feely, B Gibbons; C Bolton, D Kirwan, C Dalton; R Sinkey, A Beirne, D Flynn.
SUBS: J McKevitt for McGrath, B McLoughlin for Gibbons (both 43); E Cully for Flynn (47); M O'Grady for Burke (66).
LIMERICK: J Ryan; J Hassett, D O'Doherty, M McCarthy; K Ryan, I Corbett, T McCarthy; T Childs, D O'Hagan; P Maher, C Fahy, D Neville; P Nash, E Rigter, J Naughton.
SUBS: B Coleman for T Childs (temporary, 16-18); D Murray for O'Hagan (43); B Coleman for Maher (47); R Childs for Rigter (55); T Ó Siochrú for Corbett (61); R O'Brien for T Childs (66).
REFEREE: L Devenney (Mayo).
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