Kevin Feely admits it was a shock to Kildare's system to slide so far out of Leinster and All-Ireland championship contention. Ahead of tomorrow's Tailteann Cup final, the Lilywhites' talisman reflects on the unrealistic expectations he had when he returned to the county panel in 2017 after playing soccer for Bohemians and in England for Charlton and Newport. "I came home expecting great things," said the 32-year-old. "Especially off the back of my own age group, Leinster champions at under-21 and that left an all-Ireland behind them, they felt. I was probably a little bit removed from everything being in the UK and didn't really see the challenge that was there. "It (expecting big things) is justified, Kildare are a big football county that are entitled to feel like they should be competing more often than not. We did our best at different stages in early parts of my career but probably never got to the full extent of what I thought we would. Hopefully there's a dawn of a new era now." Feely is eyeing up a Tailteann Cup bounce of the nature that has propelled 2023 winners Meath back into Sam Maguire contention this summer and has seen 2024 champions Down make great strides. The Athy man is hoping Kildare are on a similar upward graph. Despite the disappointment of losing to Louth in the Leinster semi-finals, the Lilywhites skipper believes the panel are a long way from even a few seasons ago - when they believed they were going somewhere but ended up going nowhere. "It was terrible," Feely said. "It was so far from where we thought we were going to be. Coming off the back of our most recent Leinster final in 2021, we thought that would have been the kickstart of a new age for Kildare. "For it to go in a completely different direction was a shock. It was definitely something that was really hard to deal with. Especially as a senior player, having come from a period where it looked like we were fairly successful and getting ready to kick on, for that to turn around the way it did was really difficult. But that's in the past now, hopefully. "It's definitely different. That's always going to happen when you get a complete wipe out of the backroom team - it was nearly a 40-50% change in the playing group as well. That was definitely a start in helping to get rid of that lack of confidence or that low energy feeling that carried over from last year. "Certainly, the enthusiasm that some of our new and younger players have brought has helped to raise the confidence levels. Be it ourselves or Limerick, if they look past this weekend, the reward is so big that you can't help but picture some goals coming into the following year. "But the punishment for losing is still fairly vast. There's no point in getting ahead of ourselves and trying to plan for next year or years down the line when we still have a huge challenge ahead of ourselves this weekend." Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts.