Konstantin: 'It was all about getting that big performance'
Ryan Crawdford clearing the ball in Kildare's win over Kerry in the All-Ireland MFC Quarter-Final. Photo: Brendan Gleeson.
This writer has rarely seen a Kildare underage team perform with such confidence and authority against vaunted opposition on the national stage as the minors did on Saturday in Limerick. Perhaps the under-20 semi-final against the same opponents in 2018 would be a close equivalent.
Here was a team that looked superior from start to finish, and manager Tommy Konstantin was clearly delighted with how it all transpired.
“We’ve come out of Leinster, which was an incredibly tough province, obviously the likes of Louth, Meath and Laois in our group. That built great confidence within the group. Also, I suppose, over the last two weeks, our focus was, while we won Leinster, we were a little bit disappointed by some of the performances.
“So, the focus going into today wasn’t necessarily the opposition, it was all about getting that big performance we knew was within the group. We’re delighted we delivered that this afternoon,” Konstantin said afterwards.
He agreed the three two-pointers in the closing minutes of the opening half were crucial.
“They were critical. A very, very strong wind out there. It’s something we noticed when we walked the pitch at half-time in the curtain raiser. You could see how strong the wind was and I think we were maybe only three or four points up before those two-pointers and we felt we needed that little bit of an extra cushion,” the Celbridge man told the Kildare Nationalist afterwards.
He was happy with the performance both in attack and defence.
“I said to the guys there, there were probably two things that won the game for us. Number one, some of the great attacking play, and number two I thought in the contact our defensive work was excellent. And Kerry found it hard to get those (two-point) scores in the second half. Two points in fifteen minutes even when we didn’t have momentum, didn’t have scores ourselves, we were solid, we were firm in the game. And then I suppose that gave us the extra belief going into the last 15 minutes to push on.”
It was marvellous to see a Kildare team create and convert four goal chances, but Konstantin felt that wasn’t all about the finishers.
“It’s all a team effort and it’s all about the boys getting in the right position at the right time. But it’s also coming from the lads who are making the turnovers in defence. The boys breaking off the shoulder and running the hard lines. And then look, we showed very good composure then when we did get in for those chances.”
“Savage” was the key word in man-of-the-match Eoghan Lyons’ post-match summing up. The Clane wing-forward felt they were “on top from the start. On kick outs, keeping the ball, scores. Scoring efficiency was savage from us. In fairness we got two sloppy goals now but other than that I thought shot selection was savage and keeping the ball was savage. We put them under pressure as well when they were shooting as well.” Two-goal hero Cian Keogh meanwhile had a word for the substitutes and panel in general.
“The subs are just as good as the starters,” Castledermot’s Keogh told us. “During the week there we had so much competition for spots. Everyone had to step up for their spots. All the boys really want a spot on that team and it’s just so hard to pick for the managers. But coming off the bench, it was amazing for the boys. Fiachra (Martin), Callum (Cowzer), unbelievable. Fiachra’s so good in the air and Callum for the slap in there was just very good.”
Looking ahead, manager Konstantin will focus first and foremost on his own team’s performances and capabilities before turning his attention to Tyrone.
“Any opponent in a semi-final is going to be very difficult but our focus over the next couple of days will be to recover the bodies and to get rested and to review our own performance, see what things we did well and what we can improve on. And as we work into next week, then we’ll start looking at Tyrone but even at that our focus has to be on ourselves and producing our best performance and whatever happens after that happens.”
Lyons summed it all best, that feeling of being through to an All Ireland semi-final: “Savage, Dream stuff.”
So many candidates on the Kildare side. Charlie Doran and Páidí Ryan were outstanding around the middle once more while Jack Reilly, Greg Kelly and Cian Keogh deserve every plaudit up front and in defence the likes of Liam Mescal, Eoin Markey and Fionn Lawlor were others to shine.
But for his outstanding ball-winning, tackling, and constant involvement, not to mention a 0-3 contribution from play, Clane’s Eoghan Lyons takes our award.
When Kildare were struggling to put breathing space between themselves and Kerry coming up to half-time, Jack Reilly stepped up to a two-point free attempt.
The Kill man floated it over the black spot to give the Lilywhites a new-found momentum heading into the interval, adding two more two-pointers. Their second goal on 45 minutes from Cian Keogh was another crucial score that kept Kerry at arm’s length.
It seemed as if Kerry found it easier to win frees off Cork referee James Regan, particularly in the opening half, though the man-in-the-middle became less conspicuous as the game wore on.
Kildare fashioned 24 shots and converted 13 of them (54%) while Kerry scored 12 times from 22 shots (55%). Similar enough though Kerry had nine wides to Kildare’s five.
While Kerry exit the championship, Kildare, the Tier 2 All-Ireland champions for the last two years, are sixty minutes away from a first Tier 1 final in the grade for 53 years, and only their second ever.
They face Tyrone, the holders and Ulster Champions, in the last four.
