Overnight successes in sport are rare beauties. Often, there's a trail of years of unseen hard graft and progression before the world finally wakes up to you.
Last night's Leinster Under-20 hurling championship win for Kildare over Wexford is a perfect example of that. The shock result set the hurling world alight. The seeds for the narrow win, however, were sewn many years before.
In 2016, many of that Kildare team reached the final of the Sonny Walsh Cup where they were beaten by Cork.
They continued to use hurling’s underage tournament circuits as means of development.
At U15 level they again made a final.
At U16 they lost by a point to a Tipp side managed by current senior coach Darragh Egan before they won the shield event.
"You can trace it all back," says athletic development coach for Kildare GAA and long-serving county hurler Paul Divilly.
"I would say 12 of the current team are underage again next year. The 2002 crew was the first year where we implemented a strategic structure. Before that a coach would come in and bring along a certain group, like the likes of Mairtin Boran did. Mairtin is back in the current U20 set-up and the difference is we have a system now."
At development level Kildare tend to assemble three panels at U14 level and two at both U15 and U16. They have three teams at U17 level – including two Celtic Challenge squads.
"Underage results are all well and good but when you start to see the lads doing well at minor and U20 level then that’s a great sign.
"You bring 72 players into a system, and you wonder if you are diluting the talent, but I have found the more layers you have the better. You can switch a player back from the A to B squad for his own development and the talent coming in improves everyone year on year."
Divilly says that while Naas have been leaders in developing talent over the past few years the likes of Maynooth, Éire Óg and other clubs have also been really strong in producing players.
"Other clubs in Kildare are catching up with them and it’s really beneficial for the county teams," he adds.
"At the moment it’s working out from all angles for us. We have hungry players, excellent coaches, the county board has shown great foresight and given the current U20 team, for example, huge support. The likes of John Doran and Johnny Doyle have worked hard on the talent academy front and things are looking positive."
As for last night’s win, Ballinkillin native Pat English was at the helm for the glorious result over Wexford.
English won an All-Ireland "B" title with Carlow in 1992 before going on to manage his county at senior and U21 level. His backroom team is loaded with expertise from the likes of former Tipperary underage hurler Cian Hogan, Tom Walsh, Eoin Stapleton (also the Kildare minor manager), Chris Murray and Mairtin Boran.
"It’s been a tough time for these lads with the pandemic," English says.
"But we asked them to train individually and to partner up in a socially-distanced fashion when it was allowed, and they clearly worked hard.
"The final whistle was sweet but the way we took the game to Wexford, worked to the end to counteract their running game, and the way we stayed in the hunt was the most pleasing thing. It doesn’t matter to me where the scores came from – the pleasing thing was that further back in the chain someone worked so hard to get the ball back for us.
"Effort and intensity were two qualities that we wanted to bring, and we did that. But the work of the past 10 years gave us the confidence to finish the job, I want to thank the parents and clubs of all those lads for helping to drive them and develop them.
"We meet Offaly next week but for now, for today, I want to savour this win and the lads do too. It’s hard trying to make a breakthrough in hurling, but we have players coming from all clubs, from Moorefield, from junior clubs, and that is crucial for making the breakthrough.
"Our key job is to provide David Herity with two or three hurlers next year. At senior level they have won the Christy Ring Cup twice, a national hurling league title too. The work is paying off."
When these teams met at minor level, Wexford were clear winners. Last night’s result shows just how much work has been done by the Lilywhites.
Tonight, they play Laois in round 2 of the minor hurling championship and at the weekend the seniors, whilst having it all to do, still have a chance of making the Joe McDonagh Cup final.
Regardless of how results go over the next week, however, the structures and systems in place look set to maintain steady progress for Kildare hurling.
