Kildare manager Brian Flanagan wants to see a fire in the bellies of the Lilywhite players heading into the championship after the disappointment of Sunday's Division 3 final loss to Offaly at Croke Park.
Having started his managerial reign with four straight wins in the third tier, all looked to be going to plan for the Leinster side under their new boss.
However, three defeats in their last four games, including the 2-17 to 1-18 reversal at the hands of the Faithful County, has left question marks hanging over the county once again ahead of their Leinster opener against Westmeath on 12 April.
Last year’s All-Ireland winning manager – and former Kildare boss - Kieran McGeeney famously said "sometimes your strongest steel is forged in fire" after Armagh's Sam Maguire triumph and Flanagan is also looking to that particular element for inspiration.
"If you look at the league as a whole, it has been a very good league for us, a very productive league for us," Flanagan told RTÉ Sport.
"We got a lot of game-time into a lot of different fellas. I think the panel is better now than it was three months ago in terms of experience.
"We’ve had our few setbacks, today being another one, and I think that will create a resilience and a fire in the group hopefully as well going into championship in two weeks."
Despite the downturn in results, Kildare still hit their league target of promotion, but Flanagan was disappointed not to have secured the county’s first senior silverware since their 2014 O’Byrne victory.
"No different to Offaly, we came up here to win the game," he said.
"You set out your stall at the start of the year. Promotion is number one, then when you get to the final you want to win it.
"It was an opportunity for us to do that, for Kildare to put silverware on the table and unfortunately it didn’t work out that way."
The second half summed up where the issues lay for the losing side. Darragh Kirwan missed a glorious goal chance while nine further pointed efforts resulted in a return of 0-00.
"You look at the conversion rate and, yeah, you don’t deserve to win too many games when you hit those kind of numbers," Flanagan admitted.
"It certainly wasn’t that we wanted for chances, I think we created a huge amount and they were there had we taken them.
"We didn’t and that can zap confidence and it can take the energy out the place a little bit; we never got into a flow, we never got into a rhythm at any stage of the game where we were consecutively hitting those scores and that seemed to drain the confidence a little bit."
Understandably, the mood was much different in the changing room next door as Offaly compounded expectations of relegation by not only moving to Division 2, but doing so with a cup in tow.
"It's absolutely amazing. It's a great feeling," Offaly captain and corner-back Lee Pearson (above) told RTÉ Sport.
"They [the goals] were so crucial, especially the times they came.
"We opened the scoring with a goal and then we got one at a vital time in the second half. They get the crowd going, get the team going, and everyone rows in behind moments like that.
"It was a very disappointing goal to concede. We'll probably look back and feel it was a preventable one.
"But we bounced back, got our scores on the board and kept it ticking over."
Offaly now have a fortnight off to prepare for a Leinster quarter-final, against opponents who will be playing two weekends in a row.
"We're really looking forward to championship now. The winners of Carlow and Meath away. We're looking forward to it with a skip in our step."
Offaly are the latest county to benefit from Mickey Harte's golden touch. The panel discuss the secrets of his success. #RTEgaa #AllianzLeagueSunday pic.twitter.com/0guGJA8gyX
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) March 30, 2025
Faithful forward Cathal Flynn said winning promotion and the divisional title was "massive" for the county.
"When we set out at the start of the year, the goal was to get out of Division 3.
"When we got momentum throughout the year, we knew that there was something brewing.
"We're back to Division 2 now where we want to promote ourselves again.
"Mickey Harte coming on board is a massive massive boost.
"There's such a buzz around the county now. Johnny Kelly and Declan Kelly are two happy managers I'm sure.
"Hopefully, the hurlers can push on next weekend and win again."
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