Ronan Sweeney is keen to address the disconnect between the Kildare footballers and their fans.

Support for the Lilywhites has dwindled alarmingly in recent years owing to a lack of success and Dublin's dominance in Leinster. Speaking on the Opel GAA/GPA All Stars tour in Abu Dhabi, the Kildare coach and former long-serving county star acknowledged that success is needed to bring the fans back.

"I don't know what happened in Kildare, but the supporters in Kildare have kind of detached a little bit from the senior team," he said. 

"I suppose the challenge is now to get back winning big matches and starting to reconnect a little bit with the supporters because there are no better supporters than Kildare's when things were progressing."

Sweeney admits Kildare have suffered badly at the hands of Dublin.

"There is no hiding from the results. They have been horrendous (against Dublin) over the last couple of meetings. All I can say is this team is extremely young. Most have won U21 and minor (Leinster) championships coming up the grades.

"They wouldn't have the same, I don't know whether it is stigma or whatever, or experiences against Dublin senior teams that some of the other guys have had over the last couple of years. So that's something that we'd really be hoping for, is that experience at underage of winning championship and having medals in the changing room is going to bring them on."

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