Whelan: Kildare don't look like they know what they're doing

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, but the Lilies would have been expected to offer sterner resistance on their home patch. Only for the agility of goalkeeper Mark Donellan, 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 in 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