Dowling enjoying Kildare's hurling rising

Brian Dowling is delighted with the progress the Kildare hurlers have made during his two seasons at the helm.

The former Kilkenny star delivered the Christy Ring Cup in his first year in charge and is now just 70 minutes away from winning the Joe McDonagh Cup at the expense of a Laois side who Kildare defeated by 11 points in the round-robin series.

"We’ll have to raise our level again," he said in an interview with RTÉ.

"Beating Laois the last day will count for nothing; they are in the exact same position as us now. They are a top-class team with a brilliant manager in Tommy Fitzgerald and a brilliant coach in Niall Corcoran and it will be a great game, I think. Two very good teams will be going hell for leather."

Dowling added: "It was nice in one way to play Christy Ring last year as we had the chance to get things going. We could build the thing from there and this year we were promoted to Division 1B, but it’s all coming from an incredible effort by different people.

"On the pitch, the players work hard three nights a week but then focus on video work, S&C and ball-wall sessions outside training.

"It’s great to see these people after matches and see how happy they are. But we have another huge test on Sunday and that’s all we are focused on."