Mullally accepts that Naas fell short of their best on the day

Naas manager Tom Mullally was philosophical as he looked backed over the game and said it was a day where St Martins were very hard to stop.

“They took every chance they got and any half chance we got we never made the most out of it. We needed to be seven or eight points down at half time and ten point gap made a difference. We came out after half time and got the first two points but they got those point back pretty easy. Maybe ten minutes into the second they had scored five points to our three and at that stage you are chasing it and it’s hard to get the opportunities to get back into it. Credit to St Martins, they are a good unit, a solid unit who have definitely improved since last year whereas maybe we’re not hitting the ground as we were last year,” he said.

There’s no doubt that injuries played a part in that. If Kildare played a game tomorrow then James Burke, Conan Boran, Cathal Dowling and Richy Hogan would be big losses, for a club team trying to compete against the cream of the crop in Leinster it is catastrophic.

“Of course. St Martins have everybody together that they need and they are hurling together since the start of the Wexford Championship and they were hitting as hard today as they were hitting during the Wexford Championship. They are conditioned to be competing at that level, we’re not quite up there yet and there is still a bit to learn in that regard. I’d have to complement the lads though, we gave it a shot, yeah, we came out the wrong side of it today but I think the way the game went it was going to be difficult for us, especially with the wind in the first half,” said Mullally.

It was a day when Naas were off colour. They would have spent the year preparing to peak at this time of year but on the day their usual assured touch deserted them and instead it was a string of errors that characterised their performance.

“To say the least,” said Mullally.

“I don’t know what the reason for that was. Lads are well used to the pace and the last day the ball was sticking. Sometimes that just happens if you overcomplicate the challenge that is ahead of you, or if you get some kind of distraction but I don’t know what that could have been. I didn’t think we were at our best but even at our best I think we would have probably struggled against that performance today. I think St Martins backed up their performance against Na Fianna the last day and we’ll find out where they are the next day in relation to Leinster,” he said.

Naas must now take a break and then prepare to get back to this stage next year in even better shape.

“That’s the same for every club around the country. Every year starts from the first of January, that’s only a month and a half, or thereabouts, away and once that comes around it’s the same for everybody and nobody has a God given right. You have to do your work and try to climb the mountain again and see where you fall on the last day. This is our last day of 2025, it’s not where we wanted but it is where we are today,” he said.