Winning the Christy Ring Cup is Kildare's number one priority all year, according to their manager Joe Quaid.
At the start of the year, the Limerick native stated that their only aim for the campaign was to win the second tier All-Ireland SHC. On Saturday, they get their campaign under way with a home clash against Roscommon.
The Lilywhites will be strong favourites to win this game and Quaid is keen for his side to get off to a good start. Also in the group are Mayo and Wicklow with both of these games pencilled in as away matches.
Their league form was poor as they lost all five games and will ply their trade in NHL 2B next year, but Quaid has only one focus.
"That's been our sole purpose since the beginning of the year and despite what happened in the league, nothing has changed in terms of the Christy Ring Cup," Quaid told the Leinster Leader.
"How we are preparing hasn't changed in terms of what we want to do. The league, we took it the way it was and to be fair, Carlow, Westmeath and Kerry were a bit ahead of us. Looking back we are probably in a better place going forward by being down in Division 2B next year.
"We have two very difficult away matches coming up in Mayo and Wicklow; it's Roscommon at home first and we won't be taking them for granted. If we get beaten in that then we are probably out. Our sole focus is May 12th; we have to hit the ground running and if we do, considering that this championship will be played out over seven weeks, we could get going a bit of momentum; if we do that them who knows what could happen?"
Tweet