Ciarán Whelan: Kildare footballers will be p****d off at county board

Kildare officials would have been better off keeping issues they have with the county's senior footballers behind closed doors, rather than speaking about them in the public arena.

That was the view of Ciarán Whelan, speaking on the RTÉ GAA Podcast, in response to quotes from Kildare County Board chairman Mick Gorman.

"We are fully aware that results are not good enough, not good enough for the county, and the players and the management are all fully aware of the situation," Gorman was quoted as saying by the Leinster Leader.

"You couldn't be happy... nobody could be happy."

While Whelan acknowledges that there have been failings in Kildare over the last 24 months, he says now is not the time for the performances of players and managers to be publicly criticised by those within county board set-ups.

"If I'm a Kildare footballer and I'm sitting at home reading what a Kildare chairman has said, I'd be very p****d off," Whelan said.

"Last year they didn't really perform well - they had one performance against Roscommon, ran Monaghan close - but there was definitely rumours of difficulty in the background.

"You could probably spend an hour talking about Kildare and why they're not in a good place with the underage success they've had, and the schools success they've had, and is there a disconnect coming out of U20 to senior.

"They've lost two [this year], they could lose a third. Then suddenly their Sam Maguire hopes are in tatters unless they perform in the provincial championship.

"But there's absolutely no need for the chairman, or delegates, in the middle of the season, to be commenting on the county team. Generally if that happens on county board floors it's done in the off season.

"The players are amateurs, young lads, and