"We were probably the better team on the day and we left it behind us"

There was disappointment for Kildare camogie manager Rob O’Neill after his side’s semi-final loss to Cavan, describing it as a result that they left behind them.

“It’s a tough result to swallow, I still think we were probably the better team on the day and we left it behind us to be honest," he said.

He also alluded to the slow start that put Cavan in the driving seat early on, before Kildare fought back admirably to go into the break ahead by two points.

“We lost our way a bit in the first quarter of the first half and then we came back to be the team that I know we are. Cavan were always going to come with a purple patch on the day, it was up to us to absorb it, perhaps the conditions took it out of the players. We lost our shape and they got on top.” 

The second half was another tough patch which saw Kildare struggle to create scoring chances, with only one point scored in the second half.

The management team made changes late on to try to turn the tide in Tullamore, but to no avail, O’ Neill remarking it may have been too little too late.

“We made some positional changes, we made some substitutes but it was probably too little too late. We just lost our shape, some of the instructions that were going in weren’t followed to the letter of the law.” 

As the curtain closes on another year for Kildare camogie, he focused on the positives and remained defiant on the bright future that lies ahead of this developing team.

“I’m not going to take anything away from Cavan, but I’m also not going to take anything away from my own team, I think we’ve achieved an awful lot, we’ve only being together five or six months, we’ve proved a lot of doubters wrong and I think there’s a lot to come from this team.” 

Looking back on the year, O’ Neill praised his young team, adding that the underage talent coming up the ranks is “frightening”.