Jonathan Daniels: "There’s loads of character in the group"

Sallins manager Jonathan Daniels hailed his side’s character after they dug deeper than at any time this season to withstand the challenge of a resolute Tubberclair in Sunday’s final.

“They came out the second half and got a sloppy goal, got level with 15 minutes to go, looked like they had all the momentum, with the wind,” he told the Kildare Nationalist. “It showed some character. I see it every Tuesday and Thursday. There’s loads of character in the group, it has always been about nurturing it and bringing it out. We knew things would be difficult; no final is every easy. Delighted how we came through it in the end.” Daniels was disappointed with the first half showing, possibly his team’s worst half-hour of the year so far. “We probably didn’t have enough patience, probably turned over a bit of ball, took some pot shots. I think they were probably delighted going into half-time, but I think we needed half-time, just to come in and fix a few things.”

Cian Grimes was one of the culprits for that wastefulness, despite two early two-pointers, but he certainly made up for it with a 1-7 haul by the end of the game, including the game-turning goal on 50 minutes.

“Cian was excellent today. In the first half he probably took a few pot-shots we weren’t happy with, but we spoke to him at half-time and rectified that and his goal came at a crucial time when we needed it, when our backs were against the wall. It gave us that cushion and we kicked the next score after it. It was a crucial goal and Cian’s been a crucial part of what we’ve done over the year.”

Perhaps diplomatically, Daniels attributed Colm Dalton’s hamstring strain to the Clara semi-final rather than Kildare’s warm-weather training in Portugal since that game, but he confirmed it was always the plan to bring the forward back on after withdrawing him in the opening half.

“We were just hoping today during the warm-up he’d be okay,” he said. “It wasn’t okay and we just said, for Colm’s presence on the pitch (he’d start), but we were always going to take him out and bring him back in as well, that was always the plan. The injury is not going to get any worse, he just has a slight hamstring issue. For Colm he’s disappointed, not being able to deliver a performance like he has delivered because he’s been excellent in the championship, but he played his part in the team today.”

Dalton, who watched on TV from the dressing room while using an exercise bike on advice from the Kildare physio, was thrilled with the win, despite his more limited involvement than normal. “I was a bit wary whether I was going to play. When I came off, I went in on the bike for a few minutes, and I said I’d just come out and give it twenty minutes. We got over the line, that’s all that matters. If I tore it off the bone I couldn’t care once we won,” said the up-and-coming star forward.

Dalton felt his side was “under the cosh a bit,” but highlighted the performance of captain Daragh Mangan and brother James in helping to turn things around.

“Matthew Whittaker is a great player. He has pure athleticism, he was taking us on every time, and he got a brilliant goal. We stuck to our guns for the kickout, hitting Daragh. He was a huge plus for us, he came alive there in the last fifteen minutes, he won serious kickouts and then James (Dalton) finished the goal. I was telling James for the whole game ‘it’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming,’ and he got his goal in the end, delighted for him.”

Wing-forward Luke Killian felt the team stood up to the plate with Dalton hampered by injury, but it didn’t surprise him after a successful league campaign in Division 1. “We felt we needed a few lads to take the game by the scruff of the neck, like Colm’s being doing that all year, we’ve been lucky to have him. But even with the league campaign we’ve been missing a few lads and Colm didn’t play and the lads were flying, beating senior teams in Kildare. So, we knew it wasn’t a one-man team.” Nor was he surprised that they had the appetite for battle when it was put up to them, recent challenge games having given them plenty of practice at being put on the back foot. “We’ve been playing games against senior teams, around Offaly, Westmeath and Kildare have faced games like that where teams have been better than us, scoring a lot, so we’d been in that situation before and had to figure it out. We weren’t going to just shoot the lights out, we knew that coming into it.”

The win leaves Sallins playing football into January, but Daniels’ family will get some well-deserved attention before attention turns to semi-final opponents An Ghaeltacht. “I’ve got three small kids who are looking forward to having Christmas and we want to just go home and celebrate Christmas for ten days and then we’ll focus on an All-Ireland series.”