Plenty gained for Kildare after run-out against All-Ireland champions
Liam Kelly carries the ball forward for Kildare during the challenge game against Kerry at Cedral St Conleths Park Photo: James Lawlor
KERRY 1-18 KILDARE 0-19
As diversions from the Christmas shopping go, this wasn’t a bad one, drawing a reasonable crowd to Cedral St Conleth’s Park on a drizzly Saturday evening. Whether it offered many pointers towards the season ahead for both teams is a different matter.
It was the All Ireland champions against the Tailteann Cup winners but both teams were barely recognisable from those summer afternoons. Brian Flanagan started just five players who started in Croke Park against Limerick while Kerry’s side was barely recognisable with only Jason Foley, Tadhg Morley and Mike Breen in action from those who won Sam against Donegal.
Flanagan handed starting slots to five players who hadn’t featured competitively at senior inter-county level with Athy’s breakthrough star Seán Moore joining Milltown teenager Liam Kelly in the full-back line, James Harris at centre-back, Dan Lynam in midfield and Ben Loakman in the forwards. Two more newcomers Niall Dolan and Ciaran Flanagan entered the fray late on.
It looked a bit like men against boys in the opening quarter and you feared Kildare might end up on the wrong end of a heavy beating. The home side looked like a team in heavy pre-season training while Kerry showed an appreciation for how to move a football swiftly around a football pitch that seems to be ingrained in their DNA.
Playing into the town end with a strong wind at their backs, and urged forward by Kildare’s Cian O’Neill, standing in for the absent Jack O’Connor, Kerry led the home side a merry dance in the opening fourteen minutes to open up a 1-8 to no score lead.
Full-forward Tomás Kennedy proved too much for a raw full-back line to handle in that period while wing-forward Donagh O’Sullivan and midfielder Cillian Trant were others to dominate for Kerry.
The Kingdom were eight points to the good, with O’Sullivan having landed a two-pointer, when a long ball caught defender Dean O’Donoghue in no man’s land with Kennedy in behind him and the rangy attacker buried it low to Cian Burke’s right. With eleven points between them at that point, few would have envisaged that score to prove the difference between the sides at the finish.
Kildare’s bright spark in the opening half, other than the hard-working Alex Beirne and Brian McLoughlin, was Naas corner forward Ryan Sinkey, and he eventually opened their account in the 16th minute, repeating the dose with a second point from the resultant kickout.
Quickfire points from Kennedy (two) and Keith Evans drew another reply from Sinkey, his third point but O’Sullivan raised his second orange flag to make it 1-13 to 0-3. Kildare finished the half strongly, though, with Beirne punishing Kerry from two frees before Eoin Cully scored with a snapshot from the left of the posts. Centre-forward Ruairí Murphy brought the first-half scoring to a close with Kerry 1-14 to 0-6 to the good.
Flanagan threw on Tommy Gill at the interval, and his pace and direct running brought a new dimension to Kildare. Kerry meanwhile made six of a total of thirteen substitutions during the break and it perhaps broke their rhythm somewhat. After Trant stretched their lead to twelve points, the home side gradually began to make inroads into the deficit.
Defender Kelly popped up to finish from a quick offload from Cully, who came more and more into the game in the second half, and points followed in quick succession from Neil Flynn, Cully and Sarsfields pair Callum Bolton and Daragh Ryan.
Keith Evans replied for Kerry, but Kildare were warming to their task and were boosted when Beirne landed a two-point free to make it a six-point game, with the home crowd awakening somewhat from their slumber.
Kildare garnered four of the next six points too (Cully with two, Bolton and Flynn) though substitute Darragh Swords might have done better with a goal opportunity after good work by Loakman and Beirne. He turned into traffic and his shot was blocked.
A couple of wides from Sam Doran and Cully kept Kildare at arm’s length but with three minutes left a wonderful two-pointer from beyond the 45-metre line from Loakman put the game in the melting point for the remaining three minutes, though Flanagan’s men didn’t really fashion another opportunity to lower the Kingdom’s colours.
A useful outing then for Kildare in terms of fitness and the opportunity for Flanagan to see some of his newcomers in action against strong opposition before the O’Byrne Cup starts in Enniscorthy on the 3rd of January.
Michael Tansley; Tadhg Morley, Jason Foley, Darragh O’Connor (Kenmare); Armin Heinrich 0-1, Mike Breen, Eddie Healy; Liam Smith 0-1, Cillian Trant 0-3; Donagh O’Sullivan 0-5 (2 tps), Ruairí Murphy 0-2, Thomas O’Donnell; Keith Evans 0-2, Tomás Kennedy 1-2, Daragh O’Connor (Kerin O’Rahilly’s) 0-1. Subs: Sean O’Brien for Smith, Gearoid Hassett for Kennedy, Evan Boyle for O’Sullivan, Liam Evans for Breen, Dan Murphy for Foley, Daniel Kirby for O’Donnell (all h-t), Cathal Brosnan for Trant, Sean O’Connell for Morley, Cian O’Grady for Murphy (all 52), Kieran O’Sullivan for D O’Connor (Kenmare), Paul O’Shea for D O’Connor (Kerin O’Rahilly’s), Sean Broderick for Tansley, Darragh O’Connor (Lispole) 0-1 (f) for K Evans (all 54).
Cian Burke; Sean Moore, Ryan Burke, Liam Kelly 0-1; Darragh Ryan 0-1, James Harris, Dean O’Donoghue; Dan Lynam, Callum Bolton 0-2; Brian McLoughlin, Alex Beirne 0-4 (1tpf,2fs), Neil Flynn 0-2; Ryan Sinkey 0-3, Ben Loakman 0-2 (tp), Eoin Cully 0-4. Subs: Tommy Gill for O’Donoghue h-t, Kevin Feely for McLoughlin 49, Darragh Swords for Sinkey 53, Cathal White for Moore 54, Didier Cordonnier for C Burke 54, Sam Doran for Flynn 61, Niall Dolan for Beirne 64, Ciaran Flanagan for Bolton 66.
Brendan Cawley (Kildare).
