Kildare GAA General Discussion Thread

BNMC

Would TOC have the mobility to play midfield though? I think that's the main reason JD, Foley et al were all tried there ahead of him. Daryl Flynn is not the most mobile either so maybe McGeeney thought having two slow midfielders wouldn't work? Just a suggestion.

TOC is great under the high ball but how many times do you see a cleanly caught ball from a kickout. Not a lot.

I see the u21s were drawn against the winners of Wexford/Offaly then a semi against Meath or Louth. Dublin on the other side of the draw. March 5th is Kildare's first game in Newbridge.

klairondavis

O'Connor wouldn't be slow at all. He's quite explosive over short distances and has good acceleration. Stamina would be his big issue at midfield. He would never last 70 minutes out there.

O'Neill, Daryl Flynn and Chalky wouldn't be particularly quick but they have good stamina which is probably the key attribute for an inter county midfielder nowadays.

Dan Flynn looked such a good find there last year because he covered so much ground and rarely tired late in games. Hurley is still the great white hope there and he could be a very good midfielder if he matures a bit. The Aussies have until Monday to offer him a contract for next season.

klairondavis

klairondavis wrote: »

Hurley is still the great white hope there and he could be a very good midfielder if he matures a bit. The Aussies have until Monday to offer him a contract for next season.

http://www.herald.ie/sport/gaa/hurley-stays-a-free-agent-29846396.html

Good news for JTB and Kildare for a change.

Stoner

klairondavis wrote: »

http://www.herald.ie/sport/gaa/hurley-stays-a-free-agent-29846396.html

Good news for JTB and Kildare for a change.

I never really know how to take this news tbh, I'm glad that we get to see the players in the game, but also the lad must be disappointed . overall I like the going and come back model as I think we get better players coming back, from my own county perspective I much preferred the Ciaran Kilkenny situation to the Jim Stynes one. Also in 1995 Dublin were successful in midfield largely due to the superior fielding Brian Stynes had coached into I him in Oz he came back too and is my favourite Stynes by far.

Sometimes going away and coming back can be a good thing, but with how Kildare are now I agree this is a welcome boost but long term a more confident player with different skills could have been on the cads.
There are worse things to happen, like Larry Tompkins.

ledgebag1

Doesn't play in the centre for Clane, i am not sure if its true a chap in work said this to me?

Any word on Hugh Lynch, I would have thought he was a good prospect for the future?

klairondavis

Hugh Lynch is about 30. He was on the u21 team that won Leinster in 2004.

ledgebag1

Yeah I know that but he was getting games for Kildare in midfield until he got an injury. I believed he played well for Confey this year. I am not sure if being 30 will be an issue.

klairondavis

ledgebag1 wrote: »

Yeah I know that but he was getting games for Kildare in midfield until he got an injury. I believed he played well for Confey this year. I am not sure if being 30 will be an issue.

He's a good skillful footballer but he was desperately rusty in the league. He was hauled off before half time against Tyrone. Hopefully it was just a lack of football after his injury but there's probably a few who have jumped ahead of him in the queue now.

ledgebag1

Yeah more than likely, pity really as I believed he ran the show in a few games this year

DARK-KNIGHT

howdy lads took a break from boards as busy in work leading up to santa time....

hope your all well.. how are ye feeling re 2014?? can jason ryan reshape kildare football.. worrying but exciting times ahead

BNMC

KFM Sport nearly broke the Twitter machine tonight with all these tweets. Doesn't make for good reading I'm afraid.

Niall Kelly & Eamonn Callaghan recently had hip surgery, while Eoin Doyle had both hips operated on. All three face a few months recovery.

Peter Kelly had surgery on his knee, but will hope to be fit for TMH's All Ireland semi-final.

Keith Cribbin & Alan Smith have undergone groin surgery & will miss the O'Byrne Cup, but both should be available for start of the league.

Fionn Dowling is fully recovered from tonsil op & back training. Johnny Byrne is due to have wrist op & is likely to miss the O'Byrne Cup.

Conor Mellet has ongoing knee issues. He has still to return to full training. Tommy O'Neill should return to full training in new year.

Ray Cahill currently has a hip injury and is unable to train, while Monasterevan's Paul Kelly broke his nose last week.

Judging by that update a mix of new & experience should be expected in O'Byrne Cup & early stages of Allianz Football League.

One chink of light is while he will have his hands full with new arrivals, we expect Johnny Doyle to be wearing white in 2014.

klairondavis

That's a pity about Niall Kelly in particular. We need him firing for the u21 campaign.

Eoin Doyle seems to be quite injury prone. Hopefully this surgery does the trick because he's one player that Kildare badly missed in 2013. He could add a bit of steel to the half back line with Morgan O'Flaherty now gone.

Good to hear JD will be back. This Kildare panel lacks leaders IMO so it's vital he has some involvement.

BNMC

Kildare are playing Athlone IT on Sunday in Newbridge at 2pm in the O'Byrne Cup.

I'd be amazed if we managed to retain it with all of our injuries. Jason Ryan will probably use it to blood players to replace the likes of Earley, Sweeney, Flynn and Morgan O'Flaherty. Amazingly two of the most impressive players in the trials that took place about a month ago are also unavailable, Darroch Mulhall and Eoin Stapleton.

Interesting times ahead for Kildare

klairondavis

BNMC wrote: »

Kildare are playing Athlone IT on Sunday in Newbridge at 2pm in the O'Byrne Cup.

I'd be amazed if we managed to retain it with all of our injuries. Jason Ryan will probably use it to blood players to replace the likes of Earley, Sweeney, Flynn and Morgan O'Flaherty. Amazingly two of the most impressive players in the trials that took place about a month ago are also unavailable, Darroch Mulhall and Eoin Stapleton.

Interesting times ahead for Kildare

College commitments or injury BNMC?

BNMC

Mullhall gone to the USA for the year and Stapleton can't commit because of work apparently.

klairondavis

That's a pity. Always impressed with Stapleton whenever I watched Monasterevin.

Lots of new faces might not be the worst thing in the long term. It should create some more competition for places on the panel and temper expectations among the support.

klairondavis

Kildare SF -v- Athlone IT:

1. Shane Connolly (St Laurences)
2. Mick O’Grady (Celbridge)
3. Mick Foley (Athy)
4. Joe Kinahan (Athy)
5. Conor Tiernan (Sarsfields)
6. Fergal Conway (Celbridge)
7. Paul Cribbin (Johnstownbridge)
8. Gary White (Sarsfields)
9. Tommy Moolick (Leixlip)
10. Adam Tyrell (Moorefield)
11. Eoghan O’Flaherty (Carbury)
12. Cathal McNally (Johnstownbridge)
13. Darroch Mulhall (Athy)
14. Tomas O’Connor (Clane)
15. Padraig Fogarty (St Laurences)

Fairly experimental line up. Good to have Chalky and Fogarty back in the fold. The u21s are away to Westmeath tomorrow and another Kildare 15 will play Tipp in a challenge match in Hawkfield on Sunday morning.

BNMC

Mulhall obviously not gone to the states then. I've been told by a few different people that he was heading there this year.

Decent team, first time I can remember an all senior club starting 15 for Kildare.

Frankie Lee

Plenty of players around the ages of 22-23 named there, hopefully they can impress. They have matched Dublin underage in recent years for the most part but by the time the Dublin players reach their 20's a gulf appears.

Red Crow

BNMC wrote: »

Mullhall gone to the USA for the year and Stapleton can't commit because of work apparently.

I think Stapleton is still in college lads. No surprise he can't commit so.

BNMC

Peter Kelly out for 3-4 months.

klairondavis

u21s beat Westmeath 1-17 to 2-6 in Mullingar this afternoon.

Frankie Lee

klairondavis wrote: »

u21s beat Westmeath 1-17 to 2-6 in Mullingar this afternoon.

Any idea what the team was?

roy rodgers

good start to the new year anyways hope fully the u21 can continue on from last year.

looking forward to tomorrow love this time of the year watching kildare .
the last few years we played well in this competition and played nice football and then come league time players would be dropped and never to be seen again.
I hope this is not gonna happen under this regime as more competition within the team is needed.

klairondavis

Frankie Lee wrote: »

Any idea what the team was?

Strong team out from what I heard. Brophy and Hyland played.

Frankie Lee

A good win against apparently atrocious opposition, another Kildare 15 lost to Tipperary in a challenge match this morning however.
With some under 21's to come in to the fold and countless injured players to come back Ryan is going to have a bit of a job cutting down the panel. Hopefully it will help prevent complacency and foster good competition for places.

klairondavis

No point in reading much into either match. I was pleased to hear that Tiernan and Mulhall did well. Tiernan has been one of the best club footballers in Kildare for the last few years. He is seriously quick. Out of all the players on the Kildare panel only Ollie Lyons possesses similar pace. Mulhall has plenty of talent and he could be a Kildare player if he puts the head down and works hard. He has his chance now and the question is whether he has the temperament to take it.

roy rodgers

Was at the match yesterday and it was great to see kildare keeping on plugging the scores right to the end. They scored the same amount in each half of 2-12 playing in a hurricane wind.
so at least they are getting more accurate with there scoring.
Was very impressed with teirnan in the first half hopefully he can keep it up and makes the cut.
I think all the new faces played well whilr the old lads looked slow and heavy or even gone by their sell by date but over the next few weeks we will see about that.
All in all nice start to the new year hopefully wednesday night will also be a good victory and we can get the most games in and leave no stone unturned come the league.

BNMC

Great to see so many new faces doing well yesterday, as klairon said, Mulhall has a lot of ability and is a natural scoring forward, they're as rare as hen's teeth in Kildare. Hopefully he can nail down a place for the league and championship. I thought Cathal McNally was excellent yesterday too.

Hopefully Longford will give us a sterner test on Wednesday night.

I see James Kavanagh made his debut yesterday for Galway in their win over Sligo. He was excellent by all accounts. Best of luck to him.

roy rodgers

Have to agree with mcnally he played very well in the second half. Also think that fegral conway played well in the no6 jersey. He even got a score if I remember.