Busy weekend ahead for Kildare teams
Brian Byrne has been a solid performer at the back for Kildare so far this year Photo:
RICHARD COMMINS looks ahead to another action-packed weekend in the national leagues across the various codes.
So, we head into March and it’s hard to credit that we’re only one month removed from the start of championship season in gaelic games. It creeps up from nowhere in this breathless new calendar of ours.
Kildare teams are motoring nicely after wins for all bar the camogie team last weekend. New Kildare manager David O’Mahony and his charges have an opportunity to put that Laois defeat behind them against Roscommon on Saturday.
Our three other teams had crucial wins in their respective codes last weekend and it is such a pity that their games clash ON Sunday. The unification of gaelic games cannot come fast enough.
The less rarified air of Division 3 has given Brian Flanagan the perfect opportunity to blood a raft of new players in his debut season as senior football manager, with eight newcomers at the last count making their first appearances.
Flanagan is proving himself to be very much the thoughtful, intelligent, modern manager that any of us who dealt with him during his under-20 reign expected him to be. He is building a panel with breadth and a well-structured, aggressive style of play that the players seem to be taking to nicely.
That is unsurprising of course, with thirteen of the players used to date having come through Flanagan’s under-20 teams over his three-year stint at that level.
One moment at the end of Saturday’s game illustrated the standards he is trying to set. With the final whistle imminent Flanagan was shouting for his players to get one final shot off (this with a twelve-point lead). When his players didn’t manage to do so, there was a frustrated shake of the head. It suggests a ruthlessness and attention to detail that is needed at county level these days.
Laois, it has to be said, were poor, incredibly so, given their win over Sligo the week before. They shouldn’t have lacked confidence having beaten Kildare in the Tailteann Cup last summer. But Kildare placed them in a chokehold from the first throw in and didn’t loosen the grip until the final ten minutes, when the points were safe. You suspect even that would have riled Flanagan.
Onwards though to Ennis next Sunday at 2pm and if any team at this level could provide a litmus test for our progress it is surely the Banner, who have been a thorn in our side in recent years.
It used to be different. From our first meeting with Clare, who we did not play until October 1973 in Doonbeg, the Munster men failed to lower our colours on eleven occasions, though there were draws in that opening encounter as well as 1995 and 2000 in Newbridge.
The worm turned, though, in that ill-fated Division 3 League Final in Croke Park in 2016 when a one-point defeat felt like a punch to the gut of Kildare football.
Since then, in five meetings Kildare have edged it, three wins to two but with only four points between the teams (76 to 72), illustrating the closeness of encounters that have produced only three goals.
As far as Ennis goes, the Kildare record isn’t as bad as we might think. The sides have met on four occasions (1999, 2014 in a qualifier, 2020 and 2023) and Kildare have won three of those (2020 in Division 2 the exception). Incredibly, though, the only Ennis meeting with more than a point between the sides was the 1999 affair, when we won by only two!
Flanagan and the players are chomping at the bit for this one, as he told the Nationalist on Saturday night.
“A game to really look forward to, to be honest. Again, a bit like today, everything’s on the line now. These games going down the home stretch, when you’ve teams vying for promotion and for points are very exciting to be perfectly honest, and they’re the games we want to be in. Our lads love an away day. I thought they handled the weekend in Sligo brilliantly and you can tell they’re buzzing for the week ahead, recover from this, get the heads on Clare and away we go.” On the injury front it sounds like Darragh Kirwan, who has a hamstring strain, may miss out while Ryan Houlihan and Kevin Flynn remain doubtful, with Shane Farrell still a few weeks away from involvement. So far, Kildare have been able to accommodate any absences and form suggests they can do so again on Sunday. For the sake of our hearts, perhaps by more than a point!
Brian Dowling’s hurlers will have raised an eyebrow or two at Donegal’s win over Kerry last weekend even if the Kingdom are not operating at the level they were a year or two back.
It’s a clash that brings together the Christy Ring and Nicky Rackard Cup holders, Donegal having edged out Mayo in last year’s Rackard decider. Kildare have a 100% record against the Ulster side in their four previous meetings (1997, 2015, 2019 and 2021) and with Darragh Melville and David Qualter in fine scoring form and the Lilywhites still in the promotion hunt they’ll be confident of making it three wins from four.
Kildare’s debut season in Division 1 of the Lidl LGFA National League has very much put them on the radar of the traditional heavyweights so league leaders Armagh, with four wins from four, will not take Pat Sullivan’s team lightly when they travel to the Orchard County on Sunday.
With those wins against Dublin and Meath in the bag and a winnable home game against Tyrone to come in Cedral St Conleth’s Park, Kildare can start to look upwards a little and should travel North with a lot of optimism.
All-round sportswoman Alannah Prizeman has proven a fine addition in her debut season at senior level, particularly with her nose for a goal and that takes a lot of the load off the likes of Roisín Byrne and Neasa Dooley, while Kildare have also been parsimonious at the back since losing the opening game to Waterford in Manguard Park.
Armagh look in fine fettle this year, having opened their account with a six-point away win against All Ireland champions Kerry. They had eleven points to spare over neighbours Tyrone before coming away from a trip to Dublin with a one point win. Last weekend they kept up their winning run with seven points to spare over Mayo.
Another huge test awaits for Sullivan’s team but they’ve upset the odds twice already. Is it greedy to hope for a hat-trick?
By Pat Costello
Kildare will host Roscommon in Round 2 of the Very Camogie League Division 3A at 2pm on Saturday next at a venue yet to be confirmed but most likely Manguard Park. Kildare face the Rossies in a confident mood following a late rally against Laois in Mountmellick in Round 1 on Saturday last which yielded two goals from corner forward, Sarah Lavin.
Dual player Lavin, who won a Leinster LGFA Junior title with Kilcock last year, showed all her guile, strength and experience in raising two green flags for Kildare in the closing stages in Mountmellick. Shorn of so many experienced players who have opted not to be included in the Kildare panel for 2025, new manager, David O’Mahoney, has pulled together a squad, which although lacking in experience, is will fight hard for each other and for the Kildare jersey.
Apart from Lavin, Kildare are backboned by the returning Róisín Forde, thankfully fully recovered after an ACL injury, as well as other experienced players such as Joint Captains, Shauna Dunne and Lea Sutton, Sinead O’Brien, Shauna Mulligan and Caoimhe Ní Bhuircéal. Apart from Forde all others were part of the Kildare side which lost by two points, 1-12 to 2-7 to the Rossies in the Padraig Pearses club in Roscommon exactly a year ago this weekend.
That result was a disappointment for the Kildare side, then managed by Kilkenny man, Mike Wall, who has since moved on to manage the Leitrim hurlers, as they led by seven points at half time.
Roscommon had a one point, 1-5 to 0-7, win away to Tyrone on Saturday last after leading by three points at half time. Included in that Roscommon team which defeated Tyrone were ten of the side which defeated Kildare a year ago although they lost the impressive Ciara Kilcommons with a hand injury and Shauna Fallon, who scored 0-7 against Kildare, wasn’t included in the team that beat Tyrone on Saturday.
Roscommon can still call on the likes of Micheala Fallon in goals as well Sally Bolger, Orla Connolly, Rachel Fitzmaurice and Erin McDermott.
Speaking to the Kildare Nationalist about Saturday’s game new Kildare manager, David O’Mahony said, “We don’t have much time to think about this (Laois) game. Obviously, we’ll reflect on it and see what we can learn from it but it’s a big game for us now at home against Roscommon next weekend.” If Kildare can display the same fighting spirit that kept Laois at bay for so long on Saturday last and if they can replicate the play that led to those two late Lavin goals then they have a great chance to claim a first victory in Division 3A even if they face a more experienced Rossies side.
