By Ger McNally
KILDARE’S under-21 footballers had their first trial games at the weekend as manager Alan Barry gets his squad together before Christmas.
Sarsfields man Barry – who’s in his second year – flew out to America with the senior team on Monday. Selector Mick Monahan said they’ve been on the hunt for players.
“We’ve been watching a lot of games in the under-21 championship. We had trials on Saturday and Sunday, we had a good response but weather wise they weren’t great days for football. We will hold more trials after the under 21 final and we will have the squad finalised before Christmas.”
Croke Park rules mean that the squad can’t train together until January 1 which is a source of frustration for Monahan.
“We would like to get the players together earlier but we aren’t allowed which can cause problems. There will be a bit of a rush once we get the lads together in trying to organise training and challenge matches but it’s the same for everybody so there is no use in complaining.”
One player who will be missing this term is Celbridge’s Conor Brophy who is still recovering from a shoulder injury sustained in last month’s senior championship semifinal defeat to St Laurence’s.
“Conor is a big loss to us because he is a great lad to have around the dressing room. We had hoped that he would be back in time but he only had an operation two weeks ago and won’t be available to us,” said Monaghan.
Meanwhile ladies football chairperson Deirdre Kearney has resigned. Although Ms Kearney refused to comment when contacted by the Kildare Nationalist, it is believed she’s stepping down for personal reasons. She has been nominated for chairperson at the annual Ladies GAA convention on December 3 and the rest of the nominations will be confirmed this weekend.
Kildare junior team manager Tony Kelly has said he expects to lose some of his squad to Kieran McGeeney’s panel but the senior team’s new recruits have yet to be confirmed.
“Nothing has been decided yet and won’t be until the team gets back from America. They have had a look at some players and there will probably be another trial game before Christmas to decide who will go forward to the senior panel.”
After five years as manager of the junior team, Kelly stepped down following defeat to a Dean Rock inspired Dublin in the first round last year but it is believed that he is well thought of by McGeeney, who convinced him to come back into the fold.
“The players who go forward to play for the senior team will still be to play for the junior team until they play in the senior championship.
The plan is to run the team the same as last year, the players will all train to the same standard that the senior team are so that they can step up onto the panel if needs be.
You can only call a certain number of players into the senior panel but Kieran McGeeney wants another panel of players behind that who are at the same level of fitness,” said the Confey man.