"We’re hoping the girls rise to the occasion"
The Kildare U16 team celebrate their Leinster Final win over Meath Photo: Karl Gormley
For the second year in a row, under the management of James Costello, Kildare will contest the AirNav LGFA All Ireland U16 “A” semi-final when they take on Munster champions, Cork, in Fethard Town Park, Tipperary on this Thursday evening, 25 June, throw-in 7.30pm. In 2025, Costello’s first year in charge, Kildare defeated Westmeath, Meath and Dublin in the Group Stages before getting the better of the Dubs in the Leinster Final.
“We played Mayo in the semi-final, they had won the All-Ireland the previous year, and to be very honest, we struggled,” Costello recalled last year’s semi-final for The Kildare Nationalist this week.
“We lost momentum between the Leinster Final and the All-Ireland semi- final as there was a two-month gap between the games,” he added. This year Kildare defended their Leinster title starting with a victory over Carlow, and continuing with victories over Dublin and Meath in the Group Stages.
“We won our three group games and we then beat Meath in the Leinster Final,” the Kerry native and now Naas resident told us. Kildare won comfortably on the day, despatching the Royals 3-10 to 0-5 with Anna Dillon scoring 2-1 and Catherine Murphy claiming 1-4 of the Kildare total.
“Thankfully we scored 3-10 on the day and that got us through,” the Kildare manager said.
“Our defence was outstanding, to be fair, they only conceded five scores and that was very positive to see that,” he added.
Kildare boast four players who won Leinster and contested the All-Ireland semi-final in 2025 as Costello explained.
“We have four players from last year, Amy Wall, this year’s captain, goalkeeper, Sadie Burke, Breffni Nolan and Amber Blake."
Kildare won the Leinster Final at the start of May so once again big gap existed between that game and Thursday’s semi-final and James Costello and his management team have had to manage that long break.
“I suppose we've tried a combination of breaks and trying to manage the workload as best we could,” the manager explained.
“I can't say how it's going to go but we've tried to change it. We've tried our best and we're hoping we will see an improvement this year,” he said. “We had roughly half the team doing the Junior Cert, which didn't help. So, you have a situation where you're reducing your training, only training maybe once or twice a week, and at that you only have half the players in training, so it is difficult,” Costello added.
“To be fair everyone is trying their best, but it's a challenge, you have to be a bit more flexible as well,” he said.
Thursday’s opponents, Cork, are Munster champions after defeating Kerry 3-9 to 1-11 in the Final, thanks to a strong opening half in which they scored 2-7 and only conceded three points.
“There are a number of players on this Cork team who played on last year’s U14 team which won the All-Ireland,” James Costello tells us.
“We know they're a strong team; they haven't lost any game this year, including any challenge match, so from goalkeeper to the forwards they're a strong unit. We understand it's going to be a tough battle,” he added.
The Kildare management is hoping that the experience of playing in last year’s semi-final will stand to the team, especially for the four players involved in 2025.
“We’re hoping that the girls will rise up to the occasion and try and put it in their best performance,” the manager said enthusiastically.
“One of the biggest challenges sometimes I find is that the teams, when they win a Leinster, it's almost, "Oh My God, we've done amazing,” whereas really, they should say, "Okay, let's celebrate that now but let's look forward to the next stage, which is looking to win this thing out,” he continued.
Just like any other manager or coach James Costello and his management team are keen to win every game in which they are involved but the Kildare manager is an enthusiastic supporter of the development role they have been tasked with too.
“The most important thing we do when the players come in is we try and get them really bonded,” he explains.
“We try and explain to them why we're here. Basically, we break down all the facets of the game and develop them as best we can. We put a huge emphasis on trying to develop the players’ skill set and understanding and out of that we see who are the strongest group of players to play in the matches,” he continued. “We try and rotate the players as much as we can and if the development is good then the performance should allow us to succeed,” he added.
Kildare have been quite successful at underage level in recent times all of which is feeding into the senior team and allowing them to compete at the highest level.
Amber Blake (Naas), Amy Wall (Castlemitchell), Anna Dillon (Sarsfields), Anna Whelan (Naas), Annabelle Lundy (Kilcock), Beth O'Donoghue (Sarsfields), Breffni Nolan (Cappagh), Caoimhe Costello (Naas), Caoimhe Cully (Balyna), Catherine Murphy (Athy), Doireann Lanigan (Celbridge), Ellen Moran (Kill), Ellen Moran (Na Fianna), Grace Byrne (Castledermot), Grace Martin (Clane), Izzy Mae Middleton (Kilcullen), Kali McDonald (Clane), Kate Dooley (Castlemitchell), Kate Hill (Balyna), Katie Lyons (Caragh), Katie Rose Harrison (Monastervin), Kayla Mooney (St Kevins), LilyAnne Keatley (Castledermot), Meabh Grogan (Carbury), Olivia Warren (St Laurence's), Orlaith Dempsey (Sarsfields), Rachel Enright (Naas), Sadie Burke (Sarsfields), Sarianna Hannick (Raheens), Siah McManus (Naas).
James Costello, David Dempsey, Jackie Hayes, Lorraine McIntyre, Padraig Hurley, Kevin McDonald, Ger Cremin, Harry Hill, Cristina Martin, Frank Sullivan.
