O'Neill impacts both ends of the field

It’s no surprise that Harry O’Neill is so popular among the Kildare supporters. He’s the kind of player that every team needs.

His bravery and tenacity cost him a nasty facial injury against Westmeath last year in the Leinster Championship cost him a month of his season but that hasn’t had any lasting mental impact, as a moment in the first half of Saturday’s O’Byrne Cup semi-final win over Dublin showed.

Conor Tyrrell burst through a couple of tackles and was heading for goal until O’Neill came out of nowhere and threw himself at the ball to make a brilliant block, drawing rapturous applause from the Cedral St Conleths Park stand.

It was a moment that typifies the spirt that O’Neill brings to his defending but he also showed in the second half that he can join in the attack and make an impact at that end of the field too and his well taken goal was probably the moment the Dublin knew it wasn’t going to their night.

It might be the O’Byrne Cup in early January against a makeshift Dublin but O’Neill wasn’t hiding his delight at getting a big win under Kildare’s belt.

“They are our biggest rivals so it’s always nice to beat them, particularly in Newbridge, it’s never nice to lose here. To get over the line against them is very important, no matter what time of the time it is,” he said.

O’Neill has got the better of Dublin through his time at underage level and now wants to continue that in a senior jersey.

“We had two Leinster Under 20 finals against them, both of those games were very tight. We have a good rivalry with them. We 100% respect what they have done at senior level over the years but we have put it up to them in the last few years and now we want to drive it on,” he said.

The Clane man is the youngster that manager Brian Flanagan will be looking at to become a new breed of leader in the team after the departure of so many experienced players.

“When you look throughout the team, it’s a young team. We are still finding our feet I suppose. We’re losing really big heads in Micko, Hylo and others from last year. We grew into the game as it went along and thankfully we got the win in the end.

“We’re losing a lot of big leaders but all that does is force young lads like ourselves to step up into those leadership roles. Look at the Meath team, they are a young team no different to ourselves. It’s just about believing in ourselves, stepping up into those leadership roles and doing the job that is needed to be done,” he said.

The opening round of the National League, away to Tyrone, is looming large so O’Neill is looking forward to getting another competitive game against Westmeath in next Friday’s O’Byrne Cup final before the real business begins.

“We want to keep winning, you can’t complain about a winning habit so we’ll be looking to win and carry that into the first round with a good attitude and a good positive vibe around the team,” he said.

The win was based on a strong second half, and particularly with the impact off the bench.

The substitutes contributed eight points, Darragh Swords scored two of them and the Caragh man said it was just about building on the hard work that had been done in the opening half.

“The boys that were out in the first half did savage work into the breeze. Coming in for the second half, it was nice to have that breeze at our backs. The lads who came in, including myself, we just trying to add energy to the them. I felt we had a strong second half there with the wind so it was good to come in and make an impact,” he said.

Along with the likes of Eoin Cully, Eoin Bagnall, Aaron Browne, who were also introduced in the second half, Swords is looking to put himself into the mix for a starting place come the start of the League.

“A lot of would have played together at underage so it’s great to come through and get our chance at senior level and to score points against Dublin in competitions like this. Hopefully we can bring it on now into the League and the Championship,” said Swords.