It's not an understatement to say that Kildare's league form has been disappointing so far.
Three defeats in four, with last weekend's no-show against Derry particularly worrying. Yes, the Ulster champions have moved further up the footballing pecking order, but the Lilies would have been expected to offer sterner resistance on their home patch. Only for the agility of goalkeeper Mark Donnellan, Derry could easily have won by 20+ points.
Kildare seem to be in some sort of freefall. Relegation from Division 2 is now a prospect and with it Tailteann Cup football later in the summer.
In 2022, Glenn Ryan side, despite being relegated, were more than a match for teams at St Conleth's Park. They were expected to be on the coattails of Dublin and Derry in the promotion race a year later. That is wishful thinking now.
On Sunday a trip to Ardee awaits to take on a Louth side who have won two games on the bounce.
Speaking on the RTÉ GAA Podcast, Ciarán Whelan, while accepting that teams can have dips in form or perhaps be overtrained with a view to Championship, was still scathing on where Kildare are currently at.
He said: "In the last year their home form was good, they were probably a bit unlucky and there's the element of a bounce in the first year of new management, When you look at the league from the last four rounds you can accept that a team will have a bad performance, are going through a training block, one day it's not happening, that's acceptable, as consistency is a challenge.
"But when you're consistently bad it's a problem. The manner of the two defeats, once at home against Cork and then to happen again against Derry, is concerning."

Whelan is also concerned with the team's morale after results so far.
"There's a sense of an unhappy camp there. It's going to be interesting to see can they get anything from the game in Louth.
"They'll find Louth difficult to break down; they are well organised, have a good structure of play, and are playing well on the counter-attack. We know the Mickey Harte template.
"The criticism of Kildare is that they don't look like they know what they're doing."
The tight confines of the pitch in Ardee, according to Enda McGinley, who also featured on this week's podcast, will suit the hosts on Sunday.
"Louth will look to make Ardee a really difficult place to go to because it's not like most normal county grounds," said the Tyrone All-Ireland winner.
"Teams are out of their comfort zone. Louth make it more uncomfortable by putting you under a lot of pressure and are really targeting the opposition kickouts at the minute - putting a lot of press on them.
"They have a tight have a tight defensive shape, have loads of really good workers in that team, but also enough bits of quality sprinkled around it as well at the other end."
Listen to the RTÉ GAA Podcast on the RTÉ Radio Player, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Follow Derry v Dublin (throw-in 5pm) via our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport or the RTÉ News app, alternatively watch live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, from 4.30pm. Highlights and reaction to all the weekend's action on Allianz League Sunday on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 9.30pm. Live commentary and updates also on Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport, RTÉ Radio 1.