Kildare's Kevin Feely is excited about the prospect of dining at the top Division 1 table in the new year.

The Athy clubman emerged as one of gaelic football's top midfielders during the past 12 months and he is hoping that the Lilywhites can build on the progress made when the new season gets up and running.

"The perception of you as a team in the country, if you are competing in Division 1, is that you are a top team and that's what we want," he pointed out to The Irish Independent.

"We were happy with Division 2, getting promoted. But this year is the real test. If we can show that we are competitive in Division 1 and do ourselves justice in every game, do what Cian (O'Neill) is looking for out of us, hopefully we'll be in a good position to bounce on."

First up for the Lilywhites will be a round one encounter with All-Ireland champions Dublin at Croke Park…

"We were still disappointed after the Leinster final. The margin of victory was eight or nine points which is quite big even though plenty said our performance was quite good.

"The mistakes that we made that led to the goals, we would have felt were out of character for the year and we were really disappointed in that respect.

"Maybe we thought in the first few minutes the occasion affected us, causing us to do those things out of character."

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