SEÁN MORAN finds the prolific forward is savouring the opportunity to take on the team who deprived him of a Leinster winner's medal seven years ago
KILDARE’S JOHN Doyle has been waiting patiently for next weekend’s opportunity. It’s all of six years since the county was last in a Leinster final, losing to Laois, and seven since they were narrowly beaten by Dublin in the 2002 provincial decider.
In the meantime, Doyle has been one of the highest-profile forwards in the country not attached to a county amassing silverware. In fact, since losing the 2003 Leinster final, Kildare hadn’t even won a fixture in the competition. Despite this Doyle picked up an All Star nomination last year after accumulating 2-26 in the run through the qualifiers to the All-Ireland quarter-final.
But a year ago it all looked very different.
“The facts speak for themselves. Twelve months ago we lost to Wicklow in the first round of the championship; now we’re getting ready for a Leinster final.”
That defeat, Wicklow’s first senior championship win at Croke Park, sent Kildare down the qualifier route, something Doyle is reluctant to see as a blessing in disguise.
“Hindsight’s a great thing. At the time we weren’t thinking of it like that. We didn’t perform on the day and after preparing all year that’s the biggest disappointment for any player.”
Under the management of Armagh’s All-Ireland winning captain Kieran McGeeney, Kildare have steadily improved and earlier this year came within a point of gaining promotion back to Division One at the first time of asking.
But it has been their championship form that has really impressed.
Straightforward wins over Offaly and Wexford set up a crushing semi-final defeat of Laois, a result overshadowed by Dublin’s huge win over Westmeath in the other semi-final.
Doyle has not been the familiar one-man band up front during the campaign, watching as significant scoring contributions have come from goal-a-match Alan Smith and James Kavanagh.
“There was a good, even spread of scorers but a lot of the scores came from hard work by the defence,” he says.
“They turned over Laois time and time again and we broke on the attack and took scores.
“In fairness to Laois, anything they tried to do seemed to go wrong. That happens and every GAA player has been in that boat.”
He has, however, been impressed by Dublin under the new management of Pat Gilroy and is looking forward to seeking to reverse the result of the 2002 final during which he kicked seven points.
“The last day the one thing I noticed was their work-rate when they didn’t have the ball. When Westmeath had the ball they worked very hard to break them down and dispossess them. They did that right to the final whistle even though they were ahead.
“They wanted to keep building on the scoreboard. It was impressive.
“We’re going into this looking forward to it even though we have to deal with the size of support that they’ll bring. Dublin are used to playing in front of big crowds and that’s something we wouldn’t have experienced.
“It would be great if we could get half an hour in Croke Park, especially for some of our younger lads who wouldn’t have played there that much. I think the county board are trying to organise that.”
