For Niall Kelly the markets may have stopped tumbling. A highly rated prospect from the time he made his first appearances as a teenager for the Kildare seniors, he has been part of the county teams that slid precipitously from Divisions One to Three of the football league.
So far this year he has already played a major role in returning the Sigerson Cup to UCD for the first time since 1996.
“Yeah, that really was fantastic,” Kelly says of the victory. “Even though that group of players had been in the college for two, three or four years, you could feel a weight lifted from the shoulders of the whole of UCD GAA.
“It’s such a big college and the barren years in terms of Sigerson, it was just such a relief for that team, maybe there was a bit of expectation after a few years of good players coming through. And to win it with the favourites’ tag, which we did, it was brilliant.
"And in the background, there was the memory of Dave Billings and the tribute to him; that just added to it."
This season under the new management of Cian O’Neill, the Moorefield man whose cv glisters with All-Ireland gold from spells with Kerry, Mayo and Tipperary’s hurlers, Kildare have started to rebound and top the table with four wins from four even if Kelly accepts that performances haven’t been perfect.
“Winning the matches is great,” he says. “No disrespect to the teams we’re playing or anything but we would like to be in Division One or Two. That’s where we feel we can perform and sustain momentum.
“But winning does generate momentum. Even coming to training. Okay, we mightn’t have had a great performance last week but we still won the match and everyone is looking forward to training. The last few years, losing games – it has been tough. And maybe the supporters aren’t happy with you and it drains you a little bit.”
His UCD captain Jack McCaffrey was and Kelly says he struggled at first to understand why Dublin's Footballer of the Year had decided to spend the summer abroad rather than defend the All-Ireland.
“I didn’t really believe it for a while. But he’s had such a fantastic few years. I couldn’t begrudge him going and doing whatever he has to do. The world is a big place and he should see as much as he can and take every opportunity he can.
“I know it’s mostly because of his college work and trying to get as strong a foothold in that as possible. I know football has taken up so much time and effort for him in the last few years and he has reaped the rewards for that.
“I would have to say fair play to him for that and taking the plunge and going. I’m sure it’s hard to leave a set-up that is winning loads of trophies and medals and being around a winning squad. That has to be tough for him. But at the same time, your career is so important. And I have to admire him for recognising that.
“Football will always be here for him when he comes back.”
Asked would he do it himself, he points out the differences.
“I’m sure the scenarios are different for each person. Personally, at the moment, because we haven’t succeeded at championship level since I’ve been involved, I would find it hard to go.
“I feel there is unfinished business for Kildare. I would like to be successful first before I made any decisions like that. Someone like Jack, he’s won pretty much everything with Dublin and on an individual level as well.”
Last season was a roller-coaster trip but unfortunately for Kildare the one high, a thrilling defeat of Cork in Thurles, came between two plunging lows – in the form of massive defeats by Dublin and Kerry at Croke Park. The latter in the All-Ireland quarter-final came along with the concession of seven goals.
“Ah, there definitely was a bit of lull after the Kerry defeat,” he says. “Lads didn’t know where we were at. Once Cian was appointed and we met, that went out of lads’ heads. And we realised the set up was going to be a bit different this year, and there was a bit of positivity there, and once we knuckled down and started playing football, lads kinda forgot about it.”
He outlines what he believes O’Neill has done to change things within the panel.
“He has brought the experience he is after gaining with the last few panels he has been with, Mayo, Kerry and Tipp, that kind of experience with top inter-county teams. He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge that a lot of other inter-county managers or coaches would have.
“Along with that, the professionalism he has brought in is top class. Top coaches and strength and conditioning lads, and there is no stone unturned when it comes to analysis of other teams and analysis of our own team and what we need to work on.
“I know our performances haven’t been up to scratch, at least we would feel in the last while, but his guidance is really top-class and his experience with those other teams have proved to be helpful to us all.”
