In review: 2025 was Athy's year

“When County Secretary Christine Murray presented the trophy to Naas captain Paul McDermott it must have crossed a few minds that perhaps we could save ourselves a lot of effort and just hand over the Dermot Bourke Cup now as well.” – Kildare Nationalist, 22 July 2025.

I feel my role in Athy’s glory has been underplayed.

When I wrote those lines above, after an understrength Naas had swatted Sarsfields aside in last July’s Senior League Final, little did I know that they would be thrown back in my face in David Hyland’s victory speech three short months later.

Clearly it niggled Hylo and his colleagues, though Leinster GAA and Paddy Power were also in the crosshairs. You take your motivation where you can get it. That’s why dressing rooms have walls isn’t it?

Naas certainly looked odds-on to make it a five-in-a-row at that point. They’d had some close shaves in the past, none more so than when needing extra time against Athy in the 2024 semi-final, and Celbridge had pushed them all the way in two finals.

Celbridge would be back again in the mix and Sarsfields, despite that league final defeat, were showing good signs with a few new younger players coming into the starting fifteen. Probably fourth in many people’s rankings were Athy, the last champions (in 2020) before the Naas dominance began.

Athy’s championship campaign was a breath of fresh air, their road to an eighth senior title a remarkable one.

They went against the grain when appointing from within, promoting joint managers Conor Ronan and Ross Bell from their reserve team. Inexperienced but, in soccer parlance, they “knew the club.” What is clear to any seasoned Kildare football observer is the pride the players have in their club. A backs-to-the-wall mentality. Perhaps the ‘bigger’ clubs in Naas and Newbridge irk them. Their discipline has let them down at times in the past, but there is no doubting their spirit and commitment.

What perhaps surprised us a little was just how well Ronan and Bell would marry the experience of county stalwarts like Hyland, McCarron, Feely, McGrath and Kelly with the youngsters such as Moore, the Spillanes, Doyle, Moran and Ronan Kelly. It was a formula that just gelled from the start of the championship and once they got momentum, their talent and grit took them all the way.

They earned rave reviews for commanding wins over Eadestown in the Preliminary Round and Clogherinkoe in the Group A opener but their poor performance in a six-point defeat to Celbridge lowered expectations.

They were to bounce back from that, though, and go from strength to strength, beating Johnstownbridge comprehensively before overcoming a dogged Caragh in the quarter final.

Their semi-final with Sarsfields was an epic, two first-half Niall Kelly goals giving them a six-point lead having played with wind advantage. Sarsfields hit back with goals from Cian Costigan and Callum Bolton, and it was right in the melting pot in the closing minutes as young talents Ronan Kelly and Ben Loakman exchanged points before a three-up breach handed Niall Kelly the close range free that ultimately won it. An awful way for Sarsfields to lose but they might still have levelled it had Harry Redmond taken his point, goal attempt blocked by Padraic Spillane.

Naas meanwhile had suffered a rare group stage defeat to Sarsfields. Many put that down to it being a dead rubber, but perhaps there were tell-tale signs of weakness there. They recovered to ease past Clane and Celbridge though and into another final with the favourites tag still very much around their necks.

The reigning champions had a bumpy year off the pitch of course. The attempt to appoint Rory Gallagher brought scorn within and without the club and they then replaced the experienced Joe Murphy (Carlow-bound) with a rookie, albeit a well-known one, in Philly McMahon. Not ideal circumstances coming into their title defence. Injury to midfield totem James Burke and up-and-coming starlets Eoin Lawlor and Liam O’Connor didn’t help.

But still, there they were in the final and all was progressing to plan when two Alex Beirne two-pointers helped them into a 0-8 to 0-4 lead. That didn’t take account of the one-man whirlwind that is Barry Kelly and his goal before half-time gave them energy and confidence.

They reached the interval ahead (1-7 to 0-9) with Kelly accounting for 1-3. They stretched that advantage to 1-15 to 0-12 with Cathal McCarron rolling back the years, selling dummies and splitting the posts with the outside of the boot while Seán Moore was unmarkable coming from deep.

But Naas weren’t done. Beirne raised two more orange flags and in injury time the gap was down to two. But, guided by the sideline, Beirne was instructed to go short from a 50-metre free and that might have worked out if Ryan Sinkey had been able to convert their final chance, from outside the arc. But that drifted wide and it was Athy’s title, deservedly so.

A run through Leinster impressively saw Baltinglass, Summerhill and Portarlington cast aside but they ran into an athletic, well-drilled Ballyboden in the final in Croke Park and that was the end of the road.

Elsewhere in the Senior grade it was a good debut year for Caragh who recovered from defeat to neighbours Raheens in the Preliminary Round to win their group and reach the Quarter Finals, while Johnstownbridge and Moorefield had their moments. But at the end of the day the four teams you’d have expected made the semi-finals.

The relegation battle saw Confey finally slip the trapdoor after proving the doubters wrong for a few years. It took a massive Allenwood effort and the genius of a 42-year-old Johnny Doyle to send them down, the sky blues having lost their previous 15 games, league and championship before their escape act.

Replacing Confey at Senior are Sallins of course. The Kildare Intermediate Championship is renowned as the most competitive grade in the county, but Sallins simply bulldozed a path through the campaign, winning every game, including the final against St Laurence’s by ten points or more.

They’re still going, of course. A Leinster title followed, to add to their Junior crown from 25 years previous, and despite tough battles against Clara of Offaly and Tubberclair of Westmeath, they now sit two games away from an All Ireland title, though they face the toughest of challenges against a stacked An Ghaeltacht outfit from Kerry on Saturday.

Speaking of Leinster Champions, Grange’s campaign mirrored Sallins’ in so many years. Favoured to come out of Junior for a few years without ever making a final they finally got over the line against Rathcoffey after a blemish-free campaign in a highly competitive championship and like Sallins they went all the way in the province. They too meet Kerry opposition in Ballymacelligott at the weekend.

Robertstown had some consolation for losing out on a Junior play-off place on the final day, beating Ballykelly in A decider, while in the Reserve grade Athy mirrored their first-team’s win over Naas to cap the years of their lives.

It all whets the appetite nicely for 2026, though both senior finalists will have different management set-ups, Naas having parted company with McMahon after his short stint and replaced him with Cavan’s Jimmy Higgins while Ronan and Bell stepped away from the Athy hotseat after a busy year in charge.