Jason Ryan keeps faith in Kildare despite the pain of relegation

Gravity is merciless. It is a mere 14 months since the first game of Jason Ryan's time in charge of Kildare ended with Paddy Brophy curling over a stupendous point from the sideline in Newbridge to claim a 2-19 to 2-18 win over Mayo.

Since that day, their league record is Played 13, Won 3, Lost 10. And come next spring, they’ll be playing Division Three football. Down, down, deeper and down.

It’s not the end of the world, much as it may be presented as such around an increasingly frustrated county. Kildare aren’t the first side to blunder through two trapdoors in quick succession – they’re not even the only one to do so in 2014 and 2015, as Westmeath have been the Thelma to their Louise. Monaghan, Roscommon and Armagh have all spun out to the long end of the yoyo in recent years before finding their way back up. Kildare can too.

“They were two tough campaigns,” says Ryan. “We had two wins both years, five defeats both years. We conceded too much both years. We scored pretty okay last year but not enough this year. It’s just so disappointing. There are a hundred different reasons and excuses but that’s all they are . .

Straining red

“We just have to get on with it. I’m not comfortable with justifying reasoning or digging for excuses. I am the manager of the team and I have to take responsibility for the fact we were relegated.”

The level of rancour around Kildare football just now has the needle straining red. The fall-out from the removal of Kieran McGeeney two years ago is ongoing and Ryan is caught in the middle.

He hasn’t been helped by the fact that the group who made it to five All-Ireland quarter-finals in a row together between 2008 and 2012 has largely broken up, with the likes of Johnny Doyle, Mick Foley, Morgan O’Flaherty, Ronan Sweeney, Dermot Earley, Brian Flanagan, Hugh McGrillen, Seán Hurley, Shane Connolly and Brophy all gone. For all that Kildare have some decent young players around the place, know-how has been a problem.

“For a lot of the guys, they’re experiencing these times rather than maybe having someone to talk them through it all. There’s a steep enough learning curve there. If you’ve lost a number of games, it can happen that a level of confidence is drained. And when confidence goes, belief can go.

“The key for us is to reiterate that regardless of how a season is going, there are positives. It might be individual moments in a game, it might be the performance of a particular line on the pitch, it might be the execution of certain skills. But when you lose a game, those positives get forgotten.

“The last few weeks have been hard for everyone involved but this is the real stuff now. I don’t mind it being hard, I just want it to be better. Regardless of what division you’re in, the vibe is different when you’re winning. I live in Waterford and the buzz around here is fantastic because the hurlers are winning.

“Winning games can change an awful lot. In Kildare, we’ve been losing games and when that happens, it’s generally not going to be the best conversation in the world that you’re having.”

No kidding. There were rumbles and grumbles during the week about the county board possibly considering a change before the championship but it was little more than pub talk.

And rightly so. Though two relegations on the bounce carry a stink that’s hard to wash off, last summer wasn’t actually all that bad for Kildare.

They hammered Louth but struggled to lay a glove on Meath before going on to beat Down and Clare in the qualifiers. Their run ended with one of the games of the year, a rain-sodden epic against Monaghan in the last 12 that they led late on only for a death-time free falling Monaghan’s way before Malachy O’Rourke’s side won in extra-time.

They have either Carlow or Laois first up when it all starts again in two months. The spring has been bad but Ryan isn’t cowed by what the summer holds.

“Look, it’s a tough league. We look back to our first game of the league against Down and I’ll never know how we didn’t win it. We had that game in the bag and then all of a sudden, bang-bang-bang and it was gone.

“That Down team is after being promoted, top of the league. We’ve been relegated. It’s disappointing but we keep working. This is a team of lads who are working hard and we would believe that we have every opportunity to get wins this summer.”