Hurlers capable of some upsets in Leinster Championship
Simon Leacy wins possession ahead of Wexford’s Lee Chin during the recent National League encounter at Wexford Park Photo: ©INPHO
Pinch yourself. On Saturday night Kildare’s hurlers will take the field in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship, one of only eleven counties with a spot in the two provincial round robins.
If you’d have predicted that five summers ago when Kildare lost all of their McDonagh Cup games as well as a relegation play-off against Meath to drop down to the third tier, you might have been considered ready to be certified.
But David Herity, the manager at the time, alluded in his post-match interview that sweltering day in Parnell Park, to the performances and attitude of minor and under-20 teams of that era. “They’ve put Kildare hurling on the map,” he told us, before predicting that the group would stay together and look and make a right go of getting back up to McDonagh level the following year.
Herity drove us back to the second tier before bowing out after another winless McDonagh campaign in 2023. We looked destined to hop between Ring and McDonagh for eternity.
Enter Brian Dowling for the 2024 season and the rest, as they say, is history. Ring success was followed by the shock and awe of last year’s McDonagh triumph and having retained our newly acquired Division 1B league status in emphatic style this spring, here we are on the verge of our first Leinster Championship in 22 years.
It’s worth pointing out that our brief sojourn in Leinster from 2001 to 2004 was courtesy of a preliminary section to the main competition, where we certainly weren’t in against the Kilkenny, Wexford or Offaly’s.
Kildare beat Wicklow before losing to Meath in 2001 and the following three years saw them lose in the first round to Westmeath each time before we were graded as a Christy Ring team when that competition was introduced in 2005.
So, you really have to go back to the 1970’s for Kildare’s last (and one and only) taste of top tier provincial championship hurling. The Lilywhites operated at Leinster Senior Championship level for eight of the nine seasons between 1970 and 1978 (1974 being the exception).
In those days it was knock-out of course, so it was always difficult to build up any head of steam or consistency, and that showed in the results.
Laois, Westmeath (twice) and Offaly knocked us out in the first round between 1970 and 1973 but after the year’s gap we came back to draw with the Faithful County in 1975 (4-12 to 6-6) before losing the replay by six points.
Kildare were improving thanks to the exposure and in 1976 they famously secured a first win in the competition since 1908’s win over Westmeath, when two Mick Moore goals helped them to a 3-10 to 1-10 win over Dublin in Aughrim.
That led to the famous semi-final against Wexford, where Kildare ran the Yellow Bellies to four points in Athy. Wexford went on to hammer Kilkenny in the final before bowing out to Cork in the All-Ireland final.
A year later we were back in the last four again after beating Westmeath, but this time Wexford were forewarned and emerged comfortable 21-point winners in Wexford Park. A year later a first-round defeat to Offaly signalled Kildare’s regrading and an end to those heady days.
But here we are again and fittingly for anyone who remembers those Wexford encounters of half a century ago, it is the Yellow Bellies we face again as we take our first bow in the modern round-robin Leinster format.
The sides met only four weeks ago in their last Division 1B league game and while Wexford needed the win to keep the pressure on Dublin in their quest to seal the second promotion spot, it was pretty much a dead-rubber game for Brian Dowling’s men, who needed a couple of minor miracles to sneak into the promotion frame.
To a degree then, Kildare can ignore that particular 21-point thrashing, though their opponents demonstrated, firstly, the quality of the top three or four teams in the province and, secondly, the need for the Lilywhites to bring their own ‘A’ game to the table whenever they come up against the Wexfords of this world.
As a reminder of what Kildare face, the Leinster round robin consists of six teams (Kilkenny, Galway, Dublin, Wexford, Offaly and ourselves) and after Wexford (H) they meet Dublin (A), Galway (H), Kilkenny (A) and Offaly (H) with the five games taking place over an intense six-week period (there is a week’s break after the Dublin game).
With only one team dropping back to the McDonagh Cup, realistically Kildare will be targeting the Offaly game though it is perhaps unfortunate that it comes on the final day.
Most would anticipate that both teams will have been beaten in the four previous rounds, particularly with Offaly’s winless Division 1A campaign and a list of injuries as long as your arm.
If it does play out that way - and Dowling and crew will of course be planning to get points on the board before then starting with Saturday night in Newbridge – a key factor in the outcome of that final game will be how much damage has been done psychologically and physically to both teams in the four preceding rounds.
Are we ruling out a shock on Saturday night, then? Certainly not. Kildare showed in their home games in particular that St Conleth’s Park can be something of a leveller, and we would point to the Clare game where Kildare gave as good as they got until the final quarter. They only looked out of their depth a little in the games away to Dublin and Wexford.
Dowling will want to be playing with as full a deck as possible. It is thought unlikely that James Burke, Jack Travers or Cathal Dowling will be back for the early group games while Dan O’Meara is also struggling by all accounts.
That said, with a following wind (and there’s been enough of that around lately) and a good home support, there’s nothing to stop Dowling’s men giving Wexford a right good scare at a minimum on Saturday night.
Galway v Kilkenny, Pearse Stadium, 4.30pm
Kildare v Wexford, Cedral St Conleth's Park, 6.30pm
Offaly v Dublin, Glenisk O'Connor Park, 6.30pm
