End of year forum awards

A look back at the year just gone.

Player of the year.
A hard one this as no one really stood out. Sign of the times when it was the younger players who were leading the way. Kelly, Flynn and Hurley. Only Daryl Flynn and Paudie O Neill played to any sort of consistency out of the older lads.

I'm going to choose Hurley. Brilliant with the U21's, best for JTB and held his own in the seniors during a tough year.

Team of the year.
You can rule out the seniors straight away. A poor year after the league. The two hammerings from Dublin were a low point I hope never to experience again not withstanding losing to a beatable Tyrone in Newbridge.

However looking past that there are a number of candidates. The U21's the minors, the Juniors, TMH and JTB.
I'll choose the minors. Beat Dublin up a stick in Parnell park and then won our first title since the early 90's.

Club of the year
Easy one TMH. One defeat all year says it all.

Match of the year.
Again a couple of contenders. But I'll go for the U21 final against Longford. Special mention to the Junior final and the minor win over Dublin.

Disappointment of the year.
Where do you start here. The seniors, the minors, the U21's, the off field issues.
For me the biggest disappointment was the U21's loss to Galway. Wide after wide after wide.

2014
Stay in Div 1, reach a Leinster final. Retain one of the underage titles and sort out the off field issues once and for all.

athy minors for me given no chance at the start they beat a highly fancied towers in qf sarsfield who taught they only had to turn up in the semi then tmh in the final l

Player of the year. cian healy

Team of the year.
moorefield tmh jtb

Club of the year
TMH

Match of the year castledermot v jtb intermediate final sarsfields v moorefield reverse e final replay


Disappointment of the year
The seniors, the minors, the U21's, the off field issues.


2014
new faces on kildare panel

Player of the year:
Hugh McGrillen. Honorable mention to Eoghan O'Flaherty

Team of the year:
TMH

Club of the year:
TMH

Match of the year:
Clane v Moorefield drawn match

Disappointment of the year:
u21 semi final v Galway. So frustrating

2014
More underage promise and the seniors to have a real cut at a big game in Croke Park

kickingking wrote:

Player of the year:
Hugh McGrillen. Honorable mention to Eoghan O'Flaherty

Team of the year:
TMH

Club of the year:
TMH

Match of the year:
Clane v Moorefield drawn match

Disappointment of the year:
u21 semi final v Galway. So frustrating

2014
More underage promise and the seniors to have a real cut at a big game in Croke Park

Could be wrong here but did Hugh McGrillen not get the mother of all roastings against Louth in championship, 4 points from play in the first half off the young lad Ciaran Byrne and a torrid time off O'Gara in the second half of the Dublin game.

Westside wrote:

kickingking wrote:

Player of the year:
Hugh McGrillen. Honorable mention to Eoghan O'Flaherty

Team of the year:
TMH

Club of the year:
TMH

Match of the year:
Clane v Moorefield drawn match

Disappointment of the year:
u21 semi final v Galway. So frustrating

2014
More underage promise and the seniors to have a real cut at a big game in Croke Park

Could be wrong here but did Hugh McGrillen not get the mother of all roastings against Louth in championship, 4 points from play in the first half off the young lad Ciaran Byrne and a torrid time off O'Gara in the second half of the Dublin game.

Over the course of the league and championship I thought he was our most consistent player. He was also one of the few of players to come out of that Dublin game with any credit. I thought Hyland marked that Byrne lad for most of that Louth match?

Player of the year

I would probably go with Niall Kelly, very good for 21s barring the Galway game where everyone was shocking and was one of the better performers consistently for the seniors.

Team and Club of the year:

TMH, first team won every competition they entered this year while minors reached the county final.

Game of the year

A very biased selection but I thought the Sash v Confey championship quarter final was definitely the best game played in Kildare this year.

Disappointment

Has to be the 21s failure to perform against Galway in Tullamore!

Hopes for next year

Retain Div 1 status, reach Leinster final and are competitive in it.

Sash to regain senior championship!!!

Player of the Year : Sean Hurley ( hopefully the big man can improve even more )
Team of the Year : Kildare Minors ( bridging a 22 year gap )
Club of the Year : Moorefield ( kings of Kildare again )
Dissapointment : Not winning Leinster again ( hammered by the Dubs again)
2014 : Go One better and lift, Minor, U21, Junior & SENIOR Leinster Titles.

Thought Niall Kelly was very good for most of the year and Chris Healy looks a great prospect for the future. What a pity both are not a few inches taller!
TMH had a great year and were unlucky in the minor final.
The two big disappointments for me were both in Tullamore where 2 teams who had won Leinster impressively sadly looked tactically inept when faced with fast skilful players.
I would love to see a return to a brand of football which is faster and more direct and a little bit off the cuff.
Retaining Div 1 and reaching a Leinster final would be a good start but neither will be easy.
And finally it would be nice to rock Conleths to its rusty foundations with a few big performances in the league with the capacity tested to the full!!!

Player of the year.
Sean Hurley / Chris Healy
Team/Club of the year.
TMH
Match of the year
Sarsfields v Confey in the SFC quarter final
Disappointment of the year.
The under-21 loss to Galway and the minors loss to Roscommon were equally depressing.
2014
Retain Div 1 status, reach the Leinster final and be competitive. Retain at least one of our Leinster underage titles.

[quote="JohnnyC"]Player of the year.
Sean Hurley / Chris Healy
Team/Club of the year.
TMH
Match of the year
Sarsfields v Confey in the SFC quarter final
Disappointment of the year.
The under-21 loss to Galway and the minors loss to Roscommon were equally depressing.
2014
Retain Div 1 status, reach the Leinster final and be competitive. Retain at least one of our Leinster underage titles.[/quot

+1

Player

Eoghan O'Flaherty, really stepped it up in an inexperienced half forward line, seemed to be one of our more consistent players and was also one of the more prolific scorers we had this year.

Team

Camogie. Leinster and All Ireland titles, some great progress made over the last few years.

Club

TMH, cleaned up.

Match

Sarsfields v Confey. From an intercounty perspective the league game agaisnt Mayo coming from 6 or 7 down, the under 21's against Laois for beating them up, down and off the pitch and the minors Leinster final

Disappointment

Pretty much any of the off the field issues. The under 21's and minors failing to carry Leinster form into the All Ireland series. Flynn leaving for Oz (me being selfish).

2014

Retain Division 1 status as has been said. Give a bit more game time to some of the younger lads and the under 21's from last year, be competitive in Leinster and then see what the qualifiers bring.

Finding a centre back (don't care whether it's a traditional / sitting 6 like Ger Brennan or a half forward dropping back à la Joe McMahon for Tyrone) and a settled midfield pairing would be great.

Player of the year

Niall Kelly. Couldn't get over his performance against Donegal - personally I have never seen a better debut by any player, ever. And against the All Ireland champions in Croker to boot.

Team of the year
The minors, trashing Dublin and walking Leinster was a fair achievement. They have some exciting players like Wayne Fitzpatrick and Cian McMonagle - they're skilful, prolific forwards which I think as Kildare fans we're all pretty shocked by.

Club of the year
Two Mile House. Winning Leinster was a brilliant achievement, would love to see them win the All Ireland - that's something to look forward to in the new year.

Match of the year
The minors dismembering Dublin in their own back yard. The brilliant football we played, young Connell nailing one of them with an old school late tackle - I think it's fair to say we all enjoyed it.

Disappointment of the year
The U21s. Brilliant collection of players and at the start of the year, I fully expected them to paste everyone in Leinster, which they did. Didn't really see much stopping them from winning the AI at that point, and to just throw it away against Galway with some poor shooting was awful.

Hope for 2014
First, a proper system of play. What is the Kildare approach to football? Are we defensive like Tyrone and Donegal or attack minded like Dublin, Kerry and Mayo? I actually couldn't tell you what the Kildare philosophy on football was in 2013. Anyway, we should be going for creative, attacking play as that's the way the game should be played. With the core of experienced players, plus exciting minor and U21s this year - and more promising young players on the way I hasten to add - the potential to win a Leinster over the next few years is there. It is a question of molding them into a team. Hopefully Ryan is the man to do it. Next year - stay in Div 1, at least putting it up to Dubs in Leinster final (preferably beating them obviously), plus retaining one of the underage titles.

Just looked up the score there from U21s victory over Laois as I'd forgotten. We actually beat them by 24 points, hilarious.