Kildare's hideous league campaign, in which they lost all seven matches and slipped into Division 3, left them needing a provincial final appearance to scrape into the Sam Maguire group phase.
After surviving a late scare, they edged past Wicklow in their Leinster opener by a point to keep their hopes alive but yesterday's four-point loss to Louth confirmed their participation in the second tier competition in 2024.
It was Kildare's eighth defeat in nine competitive games in 2024 and the seventh in which they failed to find the net.
"They've lost seven league games, they got out of jail against Wicklow. I'd worry about them, even in that. Will there be a fall off in players, will they lose interest?
"The Tailteann Cup has been great but just looking at Kildare, I don't know if the players will want to (compete in it).
"Look at them yesterday. Biggest game of the year, with a potential place in Sam Maguire there. And you go out and perform like that.
"Louth weren't even in top gear. I thought they were quite poor as well. Lot of mistakes happening in the game. But they just had better quality.
"I don't know where Kildare go from here. They need to create something in that group. They have no identity. Even the gameplan they were playing, I don't think they know what they're doing.
"I don't know how you pick that team up. Meath were able to adapt to the Tailteann Cup, come out of it and now they're competing at a better level. I don't think Kildare could do that."
Kildare's struggles, the subject of much baffled commentary early in the league, are particularly hard to credit when set alongside their underage success.
In the past decade, the county has won four Leinster Under-20 and four Leinster minor titles, winning All-Ireland U20 titles in 2018 and 2023, as well reaching the final in 2022.
And yet their senior team has rarely been at a lower ebb.
"If you're an U20 and you've won an All-Ireland medal - and you're looking at your senior team. What draw is it for them young guys?" says Keegan.
"Looking at what Kildare have done this year? There's not a lot of positivity and all they're getting is slated week in, week out.
"I'd question where the mentality of that group at the moment. I wouldn't even trust Kildare in the Tailteann Cup."
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