WATCHING football at this time of the year is sometimes tougher than playing it but there were some performances in Saturday’s under-21 A semi-finals to keep the blood flowing on a bitter day in Hawkfield.
Before mentioning Athy, of which there will be much to say, the second of the semi-finals on Saturday was the one that caught my eye. There was a level of physicality about it that you wouldn’t see in a lot of senior football championship games.
For that, both sides deserve much credit because it was played hard and fair, the way it should be. Regardless of what Athy have done this year, the senior football championship is going to look very different over the next few seasons and both Celbridge and Naas will be forces to be reckoned with when it comes to deciding the destination of the Dermot Bourke Cup.
Naas came close to winning a minor championship two years ago when Athy got the better of them but it’s clear that they have a steel about them that bodes well for the future as well as this year’s under-21 final.
When it came to the crunch against Celbridge, they had players to win vital ball and there was no shortage of leadership.
Their midfield duo of Eoin Doyle and Ross Kelly really impressed while Philip Cocoman was influential in attack, well able to win his own ball and hold onto possession. Ronan Joyce had a fine afternoon in front of goal and as well as taking his goal, he popped over the score that finally put Celbridge to bed.
The losers were no bad team and had things gone their way, they and not Naas would be getting ready for a county final. They had plenty of chances but too often lost their composure and made too many sloppy mistakes just as they were building promising attacks.
You would have to think that the Kildare under-21 team is going to be a serious outfit in 2012.
That side will be backboned by the underage darlings of Athy. In fact they’re so strong right now, they’d give a lot of inter-county under-21 sides a decent game of it.
Complacency certainly doesn’t seem to be setting in and they fairly blew Maynooth out of the water in the first semi-final at Hawkfield. What should worry every other club in Kildare is that Athy are winning matches with room to spare and yet they always have plenty of room for improvement too.
At the moment, they are struggling in the first half of games. They managed just 0-4 on Saturday. In the Leinster senior club championship, their first half return was 0-2 against Edenderry and 0-5 against Old Leighlin.
As their attention turns to Garrycastle this week, that’s something they’ll have to work on because they won’t get as many chances in front of goal as they’ve been used to so far.
Free-taking is also an issue for them. They missed three frees in the first half against Maynooth in Saturday’s under-21 game and a 45. There were a couple of missed frees against Old Leighlin as well, ones that you need to be scoring if you’ve ambitions of winning a provincial title.
The loss of Brian Kinahan is a substantial one for this weekend’s semi. His physical presence will be missed on the edge of the square although having Mick Foley as a replacement isn’t too sahbby.
Foley won an all-star for his displays at full-back with Kildare and while he normally plays at centre-back for his club, the number three jersey might have to be his against Garrycastle. It’s an area that’s vulnerable to attack, especially against a team that put up 4-11 in their quarter-final game against Longford Slashers. Athy have conceded goals in both Leinster games to date and they looked vulnerable more than once against Old Leighlin.
It would be keeping with their form for Athy to right that wrong. Their defence is not weak by any means but they have shown a tendency to switch off at times. With Foley back in the fold, you would imagine that he will keep everyone switched on.
It’s hard to imagine that they will have it all their own way at midfield again and if Garrycastle have done their homework, they’ll be breaking eveything in the middle. They’ll also have plenty of bodies around Feely and Dunne when they come down from the clouds. Athy’s half-forward line has been excellent to date and they’ll have to continue in that vein. Getting fast ball into the full-forward line won’t be easy. When they do create chances, they’ll have to take a much higher percentage of those opportunities.
Rule nothing out. Athy are a team on a roll and playing on familiar territory even if the competition is new to them. A game in Newbridge is worth a couple of scores but they’ve got serious momentum while Garrycastle are coming in slightly cold after a four week break since their last outing.
Athy have no reason to fear anything and you know that they won’t play with any inhibitions. The odds should favour Garrycastle but I’d be travelling with trepidation if I was coming from Westmeath on Sunday.