2 weeks Ago By Irishexaminer.com
Kildare SFC final: Naas 1-7 Celbridge 1-6 After more than a decade coming up short with Naas, veteran captain Eoin Doyle says he'll never take winning Kildare SFC titles for granted. Man of the Match Darragh Kirwan's 60th-minute point, his fifth, ultimately separated the teams and secured the four in a row. It was the first game at the redeveloped Cedral St Conleth's Park and 5,426 turned out.
They were impressed by the brand new 3,000-seater stand in the 15,000 capacity venue, as well as the full choir that regaled them beforehand, but weren't exactly treated to an epic. A combination of incessant rain, a stiff wind and the high stakes reduced this to a tense arm wrestle. Celbridge, beaten by Naas in last year's final by two points, led by one this time when they lost sub Paddy Brophy to a 52nd minute red card.
The former AFL player was only on the field seconds when he was dismissed by referee Brendan Cawley for an off-the-ball incident. Naas took full advantage, firstly levelling through Alex Beirne before club and county colleague Kirwan swung over the winner in the 60th minute. It was skipper Doyle's third year in a row to lift the Dermot Burke Cup and he said it never gets old.
"I've said it before - we haven't been in this position that we're winning like this for a long number of years," said Doyle. "I am playing 15 years and for the first 11 we were nowhere near this. So I won't take it for granted for a second.
It has to be celebrated, it has to be enjoyed." Naas will return to Newbridge on Saturday week for what should be a special occasion - a Leinster club quarter-final against Con O'Callaghan's Cuala under lights. Before then, two of the Naas players, James Burke and Brian Byrne, will feature for the hurlers in next weekend's small ball senior decider.
These are boom times for the club and dual player Byrne said he was aware that some were almost taking this battling win for granted beforehand. "This year, I wouldn't say it came from within our group, but certainly outside it the whole talk was about this 'historic four-in-a-row'," said Byrne. "We never looked at it like that, they're all as sweet for us, honestly.
It's a new challenge every year that you start back at it." This was the tightest final that Naas have experienced throughout their four season odyssey. And they might have finally relinquished their hold on the cup had Brophy, the former Kildare forward, not seen red.
But Celbridge still carved out enough opportunities in the closing 10 minutes to rescue a result and will regret their wasteful play overall; five wides and as many more efforts that dropped short. They couldn't make their early dominance pay and were left wincing when Naas eventually hit the first score at the new stadium - a terrific eighth minute Dermot Hanafin solo goal. Kirwan, twice, and Neil Aherne pointed for Naas between the 19th and 21st minutes to leave the favourites 1-3 to 0-2 ahead.
It looked like they were finally coming to the boil yet they didn't score for another 17 minutes, well into the second-half. They led 1-3 to 0-4 at half-time and were left to regret their own misses, particularly from Beirne. Sporting a bandaged head after a cut that needed treatment, Beirne drilled three wides and dropped two point attempts short.
Former county man Hugh McGrillen then palmed in a 37th Celbridge goal, setting the tone for a back-and-forth second-half in scoring terms. The sides were level three times in the half but just as Celbridge's first title since 2008 came into view for them, it was snatched away by Kirwan and Naas. Scorers for Naas: D Kirwan (0-5, 1 free); D Hanafin (1-0); A Beirne (1 free), N Aherne (0-1 each).
Scorers for Celbridge: H McGrillen (1-0); K Browne (0-2); T Archbold, S McNamara (1 free), D Hughes (1 free), F Conway (0-1 each). NAAS: L Mullins; M Maguire, R Fitzgerald, C McCarthy; E Lawlor, E Doyle, B Byrne; A Beirne, J Burke; R Sinkey, T Browne, Paddy McDermott; D Hanafin, D Kirwan, N Aherne. Subs: Paul McDermott for Beirne (11-16, blood); C Daly for Fitzgerald (49); Paul McDermott for Sinkey (50); K Cummins for Aherne (55); S Hanafin for T Browne (58).
CELBRIDGE: S McNamara; J Clarke, C Powell, M Konstantin; D O'Donoghue, F Conway, L O'Flynn; H McGrillen, M O'Grady; N O'Regan, K O'Callaghan, T Archbold; K Flynn, K Browne, A Browne. Subs: D Hughes for Flynn (46); P Brophy for A Browne (50). Ref: B Cawley (Sarsfields).
ENDS.
