Marron looking forward to captaining Larries in Championship

JOE MALLON MOTORS KILDARE LGFA SENIOR FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP  

Although only 24 years of age, Ava Marron has taken over as captain of Kildare LGFA senior county champions, St Laurence’s after winning captain from 2025, Niamh O’Connor “decided to take a step back and just be a team player and a leader on the pitch instead of off the pitch as well.” 

Being captain of the defending county champions at such a young age is “quite a big deal” for the Larries centre half back. 

“I think our team is quite young so I would be considered one of the older girls somehow,” Ava told The Kildare Nationalist this week as she and her team mates put the finishing touches for Larries Championship opener away to Kilcullen on this (Tuesday) evening. 

“There is a bit of a gap there between the older girls and myself but it's a massive privilege to captain the girls from winning last year and to come into this season with such a positive attitude and to want to do it again,” she added. There was disappointment in the club that they had not advanced in the Leinster Championship last year but Marron cited exhaustion after winning the Co Final as being one of the reasons for the poor showing in Leinster. “Nothing will ever take the winning of the Kildare championship away,” the new Larries captain said with pride.

Speaking of that Co Final last October where St Laurence’s stopped Eadestown from completing a six in a row of county titles, Ava Marron said. 

“It had to be a defensive game. The weather conditions didn't allow it for it to be a pretty game of football. We knew that we had to set up defensively and once we could get it in we know we had some of the best forwards in Kildare so we knew our forwards were going to take their scores when they could,” she said. 

“It was unbelievable.” 

The Larries didn’t have the League campaign they had hoped for going out in the semi-final to eventual winners, Sarsfields.

“They are an absolutely brilliant team this year so they are definitely ones that we're going to watch out for in championships. We learned a lot about the way that they play. We learned a lot about ourselves and the way we need to set up for a championship,” Marron explained. 

Preparations have gone well for the championship according to the captain. 

“We've done a lot tactically. We have a skilful team, we know that we have our scorers, we know that we have our key defenders and our One V One defenders,” she continued. 

“We're just working on our own good things and seeing how we can bring those into the championship as well.” 

St Laurence’s are in a tough Group A of the 2026 Joe Mallon Motors Kildare LGFA SFC along with Kilcullen, Maynooth and League champions, Sarsfields but Ava Marron believes that Group B involving Suncroft, Balyna, Kill and Eadestown is equally tough. 

“Yeah, I think I said the night of the Launch that there's not any group in the senior campaign that you want to be in realistically,” the Larries captain warns. “We're trying to go in with clear minds; go in remembering that we are champions of last year and take that like bit confidence into it. We’ll take each match at a time,” she adds.

Larries are a team full of sisters with the Mileys, the Wheelers, the O’Sullivans and now that Ava has her big sister, Elaine back from Australia and injury, the Marrons as well. 

“It's an absolute privilege and an honour to play with her,” Ava says of Elaine. 

“I've always looked up to her. She’d do absolutely anything for every girl on the pitch. There are a lot of sisters on the team so it's great to see that dynamic and to celebrate with all the sisters,” Ava laughed. 

Ava Marron, who is a Validation Engineer with MSD in Carlow is looking forward to the first match in this year’s championship. 

“Just getting it started and taking each match one at a time and also remembering that we did it before. I know it's harder to do it a second time but we did it before and we have that belief behind us,” she concluded.