A deep delve into Brian Flanagan's first interview as Kildare manager
New Kildare manager Brian Flanagan with members of his management team, Daryl Flynn and Damien Hendy Photo: James Lawlor
If Brian Flanagan can inspire the current generation of aspiring footballers the way he energised a committee room in Manguard Park on Wednesday night, there could be some rare oul’ times ahead in the newly re-developed St Conleth’s Park for downtrodden Kildare supporters.
In his first meeting with the local media since his appointment as senior football manager last month, Flanagan unveiled a highly professional looking backroom team with an emphasis on elevating the strength and conditioning of the players as well as building their mental resilience.
His four-year term implies a longer-than-normal “project”, as Premier League managers might like to call it, and it is to the credit of the County Board that they appointed the highly articulate, professional and clear-thinking Johnstownbridge man and that they have, on the face of it, acknowledged the need for a re-build.
Flanagan emphasised the importance of patience, indicating a significant refresh of the panel is likely, unsurprising given his knowledge of recent under-20 sides and his success with those having reached two All Ireland finals, winning one, in his three years in charge from 2021 to 2023.
The former Kildare defender, who was forced to retire early from injury in 2011, has thoughtfully planned his self-development to the point where he now feels ready to take on the challenge of senior manager in his own county. The job had been his ambition, particularly over the last twelve to eighteen months, after stepping away from the under-20’s.
“I came in with Kildare in 2016 with Cian O’Neill and he gave me an unbelievable opportunity at that stage in my career. I didn’t have a huge CV, I didn’t have huge experience and I would have sensed a couple of months into that that ‘I may need to go back here and start again’ for my own sake. I possibly felt that I’m not ready for senior inter-county yet.
“So at that point, I stepped away and I built myself in terms of my education, my own experience, from club football, underage and college football, back in senior inter-county, the underage with Kildare. To the point that maybe two years ago having got momentum with the ‘20s, I began to feel credible, that this is now becoming a real thing for me again, and I can start focusing again on the Kildare seniors, whenever it was to come up. I wasn’t necessarily in any great rush to do that, but I felt that when I stepped away from the ‘20s last year that whenever the opportunity was to come up, whether in twelve months, or three years or four years, I would go for it.”
Armagh’s Aidan O’Rourke, who Flanagan regards as the best coach he ever worked with, will be lead coach. O’Rourke coached Kildare previously in the Kieran McGeeney era and the manager feels “the work he did with me in 2010 as a defender and defensively with that group had a huge impact on us.” It’s impossible to overlook the McGeeney imprint on the core management team, all of whom were involved as players or coaches during that era and Flanagan referenced those times when explaining the inclusion of Damien Hendy as Assistant Coach and Daryl Flynn as selector.
“Damien, in terms of a standard bearer within the group and the way he prepared, the way he thought about the game, it had such an impact on the younger lads. And Daryl was just the leader on the field. He was the fella you wanted on your shoulder every time you took to a championship game and he was the man in the trenches that when the going got tough I always thought the best came out of him. I think those are great characteristics across the management group and you hope that can have an impact on the group and these lads can bring those personality traits to the team.” Flanagan unveiled a broader backroom team that will include the Sports Surgery Clinic in Santry’s Neil Welch as lead Strength and Conditioning coach, assisted by Newbridge man Dean Ryan, from Swim Ireland, while John Buckley from the IRFU will act as Performance Coach.
Emer Fogarty reprises her role from Flanagan’s under-20 set-up as Sports Psychologist.
Brian Flanagan – Manager
Aidan O’Rourke – Lead Coach
Damien Hendy – Assistant Coach
Daryl Flynn – Selector
Neil Welch – Strength and Conditioning Lead
Dean Ryan – Strength and Conditioning
John Buckley – Performance Analysis Lead
Kate Timmons – Performance Analysis
Stephen Sheeran – Video Analysis
Laura Kealy – Nutritionist
Breffni O’Donnell – Physio
Owen Gallagher – Doctor
Emer Fogarty – Sports Psychologist
You can’t get away from the importance of S&C in the modern game, with Armagh’s Julie Davis, herself a former member of the Kildare backroom, earning plenty of plaudits from players and management alike for her role in their All Ireland success. It’s an area some feel has been lagging in Kildare in recent times and Flanagan has moved to address that with his appointments of Welch and Ryan in that field.
“We all know we’ve had underage success, the challenge we’ve maybe found is in transitioning those players. Young, talented, schools footballers and underage footballers into senior inter-county footballers. A lot of that step up is around athletic conditioning, and strength and conditioning in general.
“So that theme is definitely an area of huge importance in building out the backroom. I’ve worked with Neil in 2016, I’ve had a great relationship with him since, he’s very well regarded by the players and from that point of view I was keen to get him on board from day one, to lead that team out. And he was very keen to get back involved. There was always an affinity with Kildare GAA and he’ll still know a lot of the individual players.
“But my sense of it is, specially in year one, where we’ll start with an extended panel, it’s a big challenge for anyone to take on and whether we added interns or whatever, I knew it was too much for one person so Dean Ryan is another fella that Daryl would know very well from Moorefield, I’ve got to know him very well the last twelve to eighteen months, he has huge experience from AFL to horseracing to swimming to athletics to GAA to rugby. A Kildare man and very, very keen to get involved.” BUILDING A PANEL Flanagan insists he has not had much contact with the players as yet and that he doesn’t feel the need to hold a series of open trials. His rationale was straight-forward.
“The reason is time is of the essence with the condensed season and everything else but also as a management we would feel we have a good handle on what’s happening out there. Damien has been involved with the minors the last couple of years and they won the Paul McGirr Cup this year and knows what’s coming through in that age bracket. I’ve been involved with the under-20’s for three years, I know those lads of 21, 22 and 23.
“Daryl is involved in the club scene and is currently a selector with Moorefield. And again, all three of us would have a very close eye on the club championships at all times. We’ve been able to get to as many club games as we can, across Junior, Intermediate and Senior. We’ll continue to do that for the next month.
“I think the greatest trial a player can have is for your club. You play against your peers, you play when it’s all on the line now in the next few weeks in quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals. That is the trial. That is the judgement of players against each other and that’s what we’ll keep a very close eye on. We’ll start with an extended squad, that will be around the fifty mark and it will be based on what we see over the next few weeks.” He sees the continuation of the Development panel initiative as important, too, in bridging the gap between under-20 and senior, having been involved with that group this year.
“I hope it continues. You would have had a junior squad before covid. That allowed a secondary squad to work away, secondary to the senior squad. Without that I think you’re missing something. That development squad would work very closely with the senior team. It would only be for a short window, maybe for the fellas who are unlucky not to make our squad in year one, that in January, February, March they spend those three months working.
“A kind of drip-down effect in terms of S&C, in terms of coaching, we bring them in to make up numbers at different stages in our own training sessions, we may even need them for match day and different things like that. But there’d be a close relationship between the two and then maybe mid-March or whatever the club scene is back up and running so we’d let them off. But I’d like to think that will continue on for the next couple of years.”
Asked whether he felt players’ confidence and mood was particularly low after the tribulations of 2024, from those he had spoken to, the Johnstownbridge man he was keen to look forward rather than backwards.
“We will begin with an extended squad so whatever squad we land with it will be new. I don’t know how new, but I do know it will be new. There’ll be a new energy about it, a new focus. With every new group there’s a new dynamic. So rather than looking backwards we’re very much focused on that and looking to gather momentum throughout the year. The inter-county season, whatever way they line it up around the competitions, it’s full on.
“From the minute you turn into the New Year, you’re going to play two or three O’Byrne Cup games, you’re going to play seven National League games in eight or nine weeks, you’re going into a Provincial series where you’re hoping to play three or four games and then an All Ireland series. And all that wrapped up in six or seven months. It’s full on and in high-level sport when momentum goes for you, confidence goes for you, you can feed off that. Whereas when it goes against you it’s a very hard thing to arrest in inter-county football. So, I’ve a lot of sympathy but like I said for our group and what we’re trying to do is very much look towards the future.” Fogarty’s role will clearly be crucial to doing just that.
“It’s important to have Emer involved because of the work she’s done in the last three years, with the under-20’s. With the under-20’s I don’t think the backroom get enough credit for the work they do, from the coaching, psychology, nutrition and S&C point of view. But Emer would have been a phenomenal support to me and the team.
“The players would have been very much bought into what she was doing with them and she brought a calmness and a composure and a self-belief to those lads. She’s developed a relationship with them, that is very important in that she’ll be able to help them with that transition into senior inter-county.”
Flanagan played a straight bat when asked about his objectives, both in the short and longer-term for the team. The sense of a project, a re-build, never far away.
“The four years was very important to me when I was interviewing. I very much wanted that and I felt that it was important that if the County Board felt that I was the man for the job that they saw it as a similar project to how I see it. I do believe it will take four years to get the team to a point where we can be very competitive again with the top sides in the country. That simplified version is what I want to achieve over the four years.
“As a management we understand what are the steps that need to be taken to get us along that way but it will take that time. So from that point of view I was keen on this term not being shorter than that.
“No matter what Division you are in in the League, you aim to progress, you aim to be promoted in it, but in year one there’s probably a more fundamental thing that we’re going after and that’s making sure we have the best footballers in Kildare available to us, and fit and ready to play when match day comes, and I think that is the number one priority. Get the best players, make sure they’re interested and willing to play and everything else and trying to create a culture then and a connection within that group that will serve us much better in year two, three and four.” We wondered if the League might be more important than the championship these days?
“You have to be competitive in everything you play, no matter what the competition. We won’t be necessarily prioritising any one over the other. At this stage there may be a little bit of movement (in timing) in championship and things. You could plan for something and all of a sudden it changes come Christmas time.
“Every competition we want to be competitive in, whether that’s a Leinster Championship, whether that’s Tailteann or Sam, wherever we happen to find ourselves. And absolutely that includes the League. I know everybody will look at Division 3 as a very tangible and realistic goal, that you want to be promoted and win.
“But we also want to be patient with this team. We also want to allow them time. We are going to be transitioning players in. We are going to have a new team and a new group, the chances are there’ll be a lot of new faces and debutants next year. And if that’s the case, that doesn’t come without risk and if we hit one or two few wobbles along the way, but we’re trying to do the right things, then I’m okay with that. I think it will serve us well over the long-term.
“But, in year one, absolutely the League is one thing we’ll go after but as long as we make inroads in terms of the team and the connection and everything else we’re trying to build, then we’ll be happy.”
A media colleague asked the million dollar question, not for the first time in his career, he added. Why were Kildare so unsuccessful over so many years? Ask me a hard one!
“It’s a question every one involved in Kildare GAA has been trying to solve. And I don’t know what the answer is. But I would suspect that every feeder system at the minute going into the Kildare senior football team is in rude health in my opinion.
“I think the club championship in Kildare is very strong and you only have to look at Naas in the last three years. The only team that beat them is Kilmacud Crokes. The Intermediate champions went on to win Leinster last year. The Junior Champions won Leinster. I think the leagues are very well run, the club championship has a depth to the quality of teams in it that is ahead of certain other counties in my opinion.
“So, there’s a good championship, under-20’s, minors, schools doing very well. We’ve the county development squad now as well so I think those four feeder systems are thriving essentially.
“But we struggle to transition that success into the senior team and I get a sense that if you can dig deeper into why lads are playing for Kildare and what it means to them and what they can achieve in their careers and you get a group that are completely aligned on one vision and one goal and of one mindset in that I do think you can begin to make strides.
“And sometimes in Kildare we can get carried away with losses. I think we need to build something that is resilient and robust as a team, that can take bad days and take bad moments in a match and overcome them. And players that are of that type of mentality and that type of character that they keep going regardless of what’s put in front of them, regardless of results, that they find a way to overcome it.
“If we have that mindset as a group then starting in year one, all we can do as a group is to win Division 3 if that’s what we end up doing. But the following year it will be a bigger challenge and the following year a bigger challenge. If we continue to push that glass ceiling year after year and in three or four years time I’d like to think we’ll have a team that will be very competitive and then we can start having that conversation at a higher level.
“But right now it’s about getting everything we have around the county and maximizing the potential. And being very very patient with this group to allow them to develop as inter-county footballers, to mesh and grow as a team and then we’ll find out what that glass ceiling is.”
Flanagan feels he is coming into the role at an opportune time, with the re-opening of St Conleth’s Park adding to the excitement he feels about the playing resources at his disposal over the next few years.
He hopes each of those factors will play a role in re-igniting a somewhat disenfranchised fanbase.
“I do think that not having a home ground the last twelve months did not help things. You can’t beat home games. There’s just a buzz around Newbridge. The pubs are full, the crowds come out, and that you walk into your home ground and you’re hoping to see a home team that’s giving everything they have for the cause and the jersey. We did, we haven’t had that for a while.
“Conleth’s the new stand etc, everything looks brilliant. We can’t wait to bring the team in there. That will energize things. I think the fans will want to come out to see it, see a new management team, see a new team, see the new stand. You’d like to think we can mobilise that enthusiasm for GAA in Kildare, we can mobilise that again.
“That these footballers and this team can get people get back to matches, to follow us around this country, to follow us on this journey and be part of this for the next few years. It's an unbelievably exciting time, for us as a management. I get the sense from the handful of players that I have spoken to they’re mad to get going and just move the thing on, everyone pushing in the same direction. If we can start winning games it only adds to that.
“The thoughts of going into Conleth’s on a Saturday night under lights, where you’re going toe-to-toe with some of the best teams in the country over the next few years please god, there’s something in that. And if that doesn’t stir the emotions of young Kildare footballers and they don’t want to be part of that, I don’t see why they wouldn’t. It’s an incredible thing to have in front of us.” No one in the Hawkfield on Wednesday night would bet against it.
