New rules dominate aftermatch chat following Flanagan's first game in charge

GALWAY 2-18 KILDARE 0-17 

Kildare footballers rang in the New Year and a new era under Brian Flanagan’s management with a lively challenge match under the lights in Cedral St Conleth’s Park on Saturday night.

The clash with All Ireland finalists Galway drew a decent crowd to the venue given inclement cold and wet conditions with supporters curious to see Jim Gavin’s new rules in action while casting an eye over Flanagan’s mixture of the new and the old.

In truth it was a little difficult to concentrate on individuals or performance given the need to keep up with the effects of the rule changes, though Alex Beirne was a standout performer for a competitive Lilywhites side with nine points, four of those from play. Callum Bolton and Kevin Feely at midfield and under-20 forward Ryan Sinkey were others to impress.

In ‘old money’, Kildare would have lost by only a point, 2-12 to 0-17 but Galway capitalised better from the new rules, scoring six times from outside the new 40 metre ‘arc’, four of those coming from 47th minute substitute and Player of the Year Paul Conroy.

Kildare, on the other hand, failed to attempt a single effort from outside the ‘arc’ to these eyes at least. That and their inability to create goal chances contrasted sharply with the Division 1 outfit, who fashioned two well-taken goals from Matthew Tierney and former Clane underage player Tomo Culhane.

Those are aspects they will clearly have to improve on if they are to thrive in Division 3. Bolton might have goaled for Flanagan’s side but, whether deliberately or not, shot over the crossbar when presented a clearcut opportunity by Beirne just before the interval.

The first half was an even, if stop-start, affair, thanks partly to the players getting used to the ‘three up, three back’ rule. Galway fell foul of that three times, presenting easy close-range frees to Beirne and in truth the extent of the penalty seems harsh. Kildare were better at adhering to that rule and the Tribesmen eventually got the hang of it too.

There were only a couple of cases of the ball being moved forward fifty metres for disciplinary reasons, though that rule, along with the new black card offence for “holding up” a player, will only be fully tested in the more competitive environment of the league.

On the positive side, there was clearly more space available, and this facilitated more kick-passing into the danger area and fewer lateral passes, while the solo-and-go was used to good effect a couple of times and the longer kick-outs helped too.

Sinkey opened the scoring for Kildare after six minutes before Matthew Tierney landed the first two-pointer of the day and with Beirne starting to move the scoreboard along, the home side were 0-5 to 0-4 ahead by the 25th minute.

Galway pounced for their first goal, though, at that point. Finian Ó Laoí outmuscled Harry O’Neill to latch on to Cillian McDaid’s through ball and he touched on to Tierney who calmly slotted past Didier Cordonnier.

Beirne reached six points before Bolton shot over from his goal chance as Kildare went in at the break level at 0-8 to 1-5.

Both sides ran their benches from half-time onwards and the game became a little scrappier. Points from Feely, Beirne and substitute Jimmy Hyland saw Kildare a point ahead by the 48th minute.

But Conroy landed the first of his “orange flags” and after Brian McLoughlin landed a fine score for Kildare, they faced an uphill battle when Culhane buried a shot to the corner of substitute goalkeeper Cormac Barker’s net after 53 minutes.

Tierney added a two-point free immediately afterwards to put Galway 2-11 to 0-12 ahead and although Kildare added five more points (two each from Feely and Beirne and one from Hyland), to end with a respectable seventeen points, Conroy’s tour-de-force emphasised the value of long-range shooting in the new world as Galway ran out seven point winners.

Kildare will have another challenge against Down in Newry next Saturday afternoon before attention turns to the league opener against Fermanagh on 26 January.

KILDARE: Didier Cordonnier; Harry O’Neill, Mick O’Grady, Brian Byrne; Ryan Houlihan, James McGrath, Kevin Flynn; Kevin Feely 0-3 (1f), Callum Bolton 0-1; Brian McLoughlin 0-1, Alex Beirne 0-9 (5fs), Colm Dalton; Ryan Sinkey 0-1, Daniel Flynn, Niall Kelly. SUBS: David Hyland for K Flynn 27, Eoin Lawlor for Houlihan HT, Jimmy Hyland 0-2 for D Flynn HT, Cormac Barker for Cordonnier 47, Darragh Mangan for Kelly 51, Cathal Hagney for McLoughlin 51, Tommy Gill for McGrath 62, Tony Archbold for Dalton 62.

GALWAY: Conor Flaherty; Seán Fitzgerald, Cian Hernon, Daniel Flaherty 0-1; Kieran Molloy, John Daly, Seán Kelly; Céin D’Arcy, Cillian McDaid 0-1; Finnian Ó Laoí, Sam O’Neill, James McLoughlin; Matthew Thompson, Matthew Tierney 1-4 (1m, 2fs, one a two-pointer), Cillian Ó Curraoin 0-3 (2fs, one a two-pointer). SUBS: Tomo Culhane 1-0 for Ó Curraoin 27, Connor Gleeson for C Flaherty HT, Liam Silke for Molloy HT, Cathal Sweeney for Thompson HT, Johnny McGrath for Hernon HT, Paul Conroy 0-8 (four two-pointers) for O’Neill, Colm Costello 0-1 for Ó Laoi 47, Seán Mulkerrin for Fitzgerald 47, Liam O’Conghaile for McLoughlin 47, Shay McGlinchey for McDaid 59, Jack O’Neill for D’Arcy 66.

REFEREE: David Gough (Meath).