Former Mayo footballer Lee Keegan has weighed in on Kildare's form
"Based on form alone, the notion sounds daft. But glancing at the raw talent and potential in their ranks, there's no reason they should be overawed.
"When you consider their population, the fact that they've won two U20 All-Ireland titles in the last five years - although the second one was only this year - it's not as if they're lacking in quality.
"They have ability in spades up front in the form of Daniel Flynn, Neil Flynn and Jimmy Hyland. They just don't seem to have evolved a structure that allow them to play to their capabilities.
"Being blunt, they've had a pretty pathetic year until now. They barely stayed up in Division 2, scraped into the Sam Maguire thanks to other results (I'd say the relief when Louth came through in extra-time against Offaly was overwhelming).
"Kildare play like a team with no sense of identity. You don't know what kind of shape or structure they're going to adopt on a given afternoon," he insisted.
"This was perfectly summed up by the pair of games against Dublin this summer.
"all applauded them after the provincial semi-final, where they put in place a really solid and well-organised defensive structure, frustrated the life of the Dubs, and but for some poor shooting near the end could have scraped a famous win. The automatic instinct after that afternoon was to re-evaluate their chances.
"Then they go out a few weeks later in Nowlan Park, go man-to-man and get hammered. Not only that, in between, they were held to a draw by Sligo at Markiewicz Park.
"If you go against the Dubs at Croke Park and set up one way, then play them a few weeks later and set up the total opposite way, that's not going to create identity or personality in a team," he added.
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