Róisín burning with desire for Leinster campaign

Experienced and multi award winning Kildare forward, Róisín Byrne, is looking forward in earnest to the 2025 TG4 Leinster LGFA SFC having missed last year’s Kildare campaign because of injury and that experience has taught her to be less nervous than she might have been in previous years. “I suppose this is where the bit of experience works,” she told the Kildare Nationalist this week in advance of Kildare’s Round 2 game against defending champions, Dublin, in Cedral St Conleth’s Park on Sunday at 2pm. 

“I remember my first couple of years, like, how nervous I’d be because of a big separation between League and Championship as before I would have viewed Championship as this completely separate thing. But I think the more experience I get, I kind of take every match as it comes, and like how important each match is,” she explained.

The classy forward sees the Lilywhites as perfectly lined up for the 2025 campaign. “I think we were mentally tuned in for League this year so with the break now between League and Championship it's all preparation so not too much time to get nervous. I’m really looking forward to it and I can’t wait to get going,” she added.

While the Sarsfields player missed Kildare’s Leinster campaign last year her colleagues went into a baptism of fire by facing Meath and Dublin so soon after claiming back-to-back League promotions and a TG4 All Ireland Intermediate Championship title in 2023.

“We wouldn't have really encountered Dublin that much over the last few years although we would have played Meath but they're different outfit now. I picked up an injury last year and I missed it because there's something really exciting about Leinster,” Róisín tells us. 

“It just came so quickly when we were so high after winning Division 2 last year. We finished the Division 2 Final and then all of a sudden, we were playing Dublin and it was a shock.” Byrne is convinced that last year’s “shock” will stand to Kildare in this year’s campaign. 

“I think we had glimpses of good performances last year but I think having played at senior level last year and now also having played at Division 1 for the League and staying up in both, that's really going to stand to us, yeah.” The retention of Division 1 status was vital according to Róisín Byrne with the yo/yo of promotion/relegation being of no value to a developing side like Kildare. 

“The up/down stuff just really doesn't work. We’ve seen ourselves on a kind of a slow burner trajectory over the last few years, but we're right where we want to be now,” she contended. 

“We're in a good position as well. We're entering into this Leinster campaign without fear.” Positive League results against Leinster’s “big two” pleased the Sarsfields player. 

“We know Dublin and Meath are absolutely unbelievable but we put it up to them both in the League and we got the results. We're under no illusions now that they’re going to be completely different teams that we’ll face in Leinster We can go in respecting both teams, not fearing them, and I think that's really important for us.” 

Kildare are also a different team in 2025 with a new Management Team under Pat Sullivan and an influx of young players who have enjoyed success at underage level particularly in Leinster and who seem to be able to play without fear. “Oh, 100% , that's what it is. It's really about just leaving that fear behind us,” Kildare’s sharpshooter contends. 

“I think that's something we've really worked on this year. The girls that have come up from underage have just been really, really good at that and it's really good to see. There's a conveyor belt coming through from successful underage teams and it's just really important for us to get those girls up into the senior ranks.” 

“Now we're starting to see the rewards of all the work that's gone in at underage level over the last few years because some of these younger girls are absolutely smashing. You know for some of them it seems like they've been playing senior for a couple years,” Byrne added.

The Sarsfields player sees these younger players as a motivation for experienced players like herself rather than a threat. 

“It's really, really good motivation,” she explains. 

“The competition for places is like it's never been before. You need to be back training, performing as best as you can every single training session or your place might not be there. I think those underage girls, they're all dying for a starting position as well so it’s made training really, really competitive, which is brilliant.” 

Kildare had huge success under Diane O’Hora in the past two years but when the former Mayo All Star stepped down at the end of the Championship last year Kildare turned to the experienced Pat Sullivan, the former Waterford manager which Róisín Byrne sees as another positive development in Lilywhite country. 

“Since I came back from injury under Diane, we've just seen Kildare rise and rise. To get up out of Division 3, up and out of Division 2 and now to stay in Division 1 has been unbelievable,” Byrne tells us. “Pat (Sullivan) brings a completely new perspective with a brand-new Backroom Team as well and it's been brilliant. It's been hugely professional.” “It's just good to have different voices as well. Pat has done it all before; he's been with Waterford for so long and has been operating up in senior. So yes, it's been brilliant. It's been really, really good.” 

Finally, we ask Róisín what her hopes and ambitions are for the TG4 Leinster SFC of 2025. “Personally, I want to stay healthy and to be able to contribute whatever I can. As a group I think we just know ourselves what we're capable of doing.” 

“We know on a good day how we can perform and I’d just love to see us go out and do that, just to go out and actually play to our potential. We can be operating at an eight or nine, but we can operate at a two or three as well sometimes. So, we want to keep the performance above 90% in all of those matches. I think if we can get those performances in against two super teams like Dublin and Meath it'll show what kind of team Kildare is,” she concludes.