Kildare and Paul Dolan aren’t complaining about the position they find themselves in today - so why should anyone else?
While the preliminary quarter-finals are much-maligned as snobbery abounds around the prospect of the Joe McDonagh Cup winners being afforded a route into the All-Ireland series, the gap to be bridged at this stage of the season is not as great as some might have you believe.
Granted, the McDonagh Cup runners-up have suffered some terrible beatings, particularly from Munster opposition, but Dublin’s trip to Cedral St Conleth’s Park is just the third time that the third-placed team in Leinster has had to play the McDonagh winners.
On the two previous occasions, Dublin were also involved. In 2019 they were beaten by Laois and while they beat Carlow two years ago with 10 points to spare in the end, they trailed at half-time and only burned them off with a run of 1-5 late on.
“There's a lot of outside noise relating to it, in regards to the structure of the Championship and are we being put into a completely one-sided game,” said Dolan, one of the heroes of Kildare’s runaway victory over Laois last Sunday.
“Like, the six-day turnaround is what it is but we're not going to go making excuses. We're going to approach that the very same way we approach every game.
“None of the current panel have played at senior inter-county level against a tier-one county in Championship hurling and we're getting that opportunity on Saturday. We're just relishing the challenge.
“Obviously Dublin are an unbelievable side. They have pace, power and they're a good team. We're going to respect that but we've been hurling well lately so we need to have belief going into the game and we're looking forward to it."
Much of the ingredients for an ambush appear to be in place with a bumper crowd expected as the game forms a double bill with the footballers’ Tailteann Cup quarter-final against Offaly.
“Sometimes there might be a narrative about the hurlers and the footballers, but we like seeing the footballers do well,” Dolan noted. “And I saw a lot of football people up there last Sunday after the game that I wouldn't ever associate with going to a hurling match, so that's great to see.
“I don't know, some people might say bandwagoners and stuff but no, that's what you want. We're trying to grow hurling in Kildare and a double-header with the footballers is only going to enhance that. It's hopefully going to be a brilliant occasion and hopefully the two teams get the results.”
Like many on the Kildare panel, the Éire Óg Corra Choill man’s parentage is drawn from a more traditional hurling stronghold.
“My father is actually from Lorrha in North Tipp and then a few lads that I would have grown up hurling with, one of them, their mother is a Tipp woman and then there's another one and his father's a Kilkenny man and his mother is a Tipp woman.
“We would have always gone together as groups down to Semple Stadium, Nowlan Park and all these, like a lot of the lads on the panel.
“David Qualter's dad is a big, passionate Galway man. A lad that managed us for years is a Garryspillane man from Limerick.
“There's hurling going from these Munster tier one counties into Kildare and you just gain a love for hurling through watching all these players growing up. It transpired into growing Kildare hurling then."
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