Kildare v DIT

Hard to believe another year is upon us again, hopefully it's a good one. Any word on a team lads?

Tom Corley,
Ollie Lyons,
Peter Kelly,
Liam Healy,
Ryan Houlihan,
Johnny Byrne,
Cian O’ Donoghue,
Daniel Flynn,
Matty Byrne,
Cathal McNally,
Eoghan O’ Flaherty,
Adam Tyrell,
James Eaton,
Fionn Dowling,
Seamus Hanafin

Not a bad looking team considering the players that are unavailable. Let's hope Peter Kelly can have an injury free season. I can't remember the last time that happened.

I'll be interested to see how the likes of Liam Healy, Ryan Houlihan, Johnny Byrne, Matty Byrne and James Eaton get on. Hopefully Ray Cahill gets a chance as well. Looking at it from the outside, there is a feeling that places on the team/panel are up for grabs and that players on form will get picked which didn't always seem to be the case recently.

Nice to see Healy. Houli and mattie getting a chance.. but some of those fellas are still the annual o Byrne cup regulars. Pity.

Article on O'Neill (and this match) on the Kildaregaa365 website:

Being Competitive the Main Goal For Cian O'Neill

They are also gradually building a record of all Kildare results with results and scorers with all senior matches back to 2004 currently up there. They even recommend this forum for fans who want to discuss Kildare GAA

Plenty of Moorefield representation for Sunday.

Good start.

When KFM listed the lads, missing as they are with the colleges, it makes the 14 point win, scoring 24, very impressive while we scraped home by a point in Darver....

Looking forward to next Sunday,,,,,,,,

I'm looking forward to Wednesday. Hard to tell too much given DIT were down to fourteen men for the last 25 minutes. Forwards got their scores but the three minute spell that got DIT 1.2 in the first half highlighted a lot of problems at the back. For me the most interesting moment came about five minutes after the final whistle - Cian O'Neill deep in conversation with Tomás O'Connor on the halfway line...

Thought Dan Flynn, Adam Tyrell and Flats were impressive today, Houly was playing well up until the black card. I would imagine we will see a completely different 15 on Wednesday but good to see so many players getting an opportunity.

k. For me the most interesting moment came about five minutes after the final whistle - Cian O'Neill deep in conversation with Tomás O'Connor on the halfway line...[/quote]

Hopefully he was telling him that's the closest he gets to a Kildare shirt this year.

Decent enough start. I thought we were try to kick early ball into the forwards which was encouraging and some of our link up play was good. I thought our full-back line was very shaky at times and our tendency to foul needlessly was shown again.

Of the newcomers, Adam Tyrell played well. He is very accurate when he gets a chance and is a good left footed free-taker. Ryan Houlihan is very good going forward but I thought he was a bit rash getting the black card. Johnny Byrne looked good as well - big and strong and a good passer.

Of the established players, I thought Dan Flynn looked fit and played well with a lot of good running from midfield. Eoin O'Flaherty was good as well and got a few nice points.

The Kildare warm up made for interesting viewing. Everything was done with the ball and there was a big emphasis on footpassing.

Dan Flynn looked like he could become an important player this year and Tyrell brought his club form with him. Looking forward to seeing some more of the other fringe players on Wednesday in Hawkfield.

Nice way to start considering the long grass, heavy ground and little bounce. A good work out and I would expect O'Neill to be happy with what he seen. His cries of contact when DIT were moving the ball from the back was a simple idea but good to see as we have let teams run through us for years. Create contact and slow them down.

Player wise Flats was the motm for me, frees were perfect, joined in the attacks well, linked play and scored from play. Tyrell and Flynn not far behind. If we could get Flynn coming off shoulders at full speed in the summer he could do serious damage as his size and speed would be hard stopped.
Tyrell was very accurate and had a very good game.
Good to see Fitzpatrick there so rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated.

The one thing that annoyed me no end and reflected very poorly on a section of support was the jeering of Tomas O' Connor when he failed to score or got crowded out. Some people need to have a hard look at themselves.

Looking forward to Wednesday.

Looks like I'm in the minority who was a tad underwhelmed..

DIT were one of the poorest college teams I've seen in this competition and I really don't see what place college teams have in the O'B Cup. Therefore it was just a training run for Kildare.

I thought O'Neill left himself unnecessarily open to accusations of bias with him giving 7 Moores men a run out. Thought only two of them (Tyrell and Houlihan to a degree) brought anything to the table. Indeed other than Tyrell who was outstanding I didn't think any of the new guys really put themselves in the frame. Most were disappointing and too many of them have been tried before so it was predictably poor. Other than Tyrell only Flynn and Flats (both of whom we know well) impressed.

Yes we scored 24 points but we were playing against club players essentially.

Our defensive frailties were in evidence as usual. Undisciplined tackling in our full back line followed by the obligatory throwing of hands to heaven to blame the referree, God or Allah, who knows, and the goal we give away was soft. A young lad losing his man and the flight of the ball on his inter county debut so won't be too harsh on him.

Thank goodness for Tyrell's performance. Now there's a lad who has the confidence to take a shot on. But we've seen him do that pre-season before so let's see of he can take it on into competitive football. Great showing from him though.

Final thoughts: didn't see any tactical innovation today and perhaps O'Neill just decided it wasn't the day or the opposition for it. 15 on 15 just won't work for us in the summer but let's assume that he doesn't intend to get into tactical a nitty gritty for a few weeks yet.

Kick outs were straight down the middle but that was probably the best policy on a heavy sod and long grass.

Decent work out but actually quite depressed at the level of talent on show.

Would have to agree with Crofter. Nothing to get excited about today apart from Daniel Flynn, he looked very good, he will get better once the ground hardens up. Tyrell was good too. Peter Kelly was impressive, he didn't give TOC a sniff, it's a pity he's so injury prone. I'd like to see Eanna O'Connor start on Wednesday, he could be an option at full forward.

DIT were woeful, though. A decent Intermediate side would have given them a game.

No goals and didn't really look like scoring one either. None of our full forward line scored until Hanafin kicked a point late in the second half. Fionn Dowling is as much a county footballer as Tommy Keegan is.

Interesting to read Rory O'Carroll has gone travelling, he won't be involved with Dublin this year.

Taibi wrote:

Would have to agree with Crofter. Nothing to get excited about today apart from Daniel Flynn, he looked very good, he will get better once the ground hardens up. Tyrell was good too. Peter Kelly was impressive, he didn't give TOC a sniff, it's a pity he's so injury prone. I'd like to see Eanna O'Connor start on Wednesday, he could be an option at full forward.

DIT were woeful, though. A decent Intermediate side would have given them a game.

No goals and didn't really look like scoring one either. None of our full forward line scored until Hanafin kicked a point late in the second half. Fionn Dowling is as much a county footballer as Tommy Keegan is.

Interesting to read Rory O'Carroll has gone travelling, he won't be involved with Dublin this year.

Quote of the year contender there already Taibi !

Hard to read too much into today given the time of year and standard of the opposition. Having said that Adam Tyrrell had a fine display with 9 points and was man of the match for me. Ryan Houlihan was also good and unlucky to pick up a black card.

Would like to see Ray Cahill, Eanna O'Connor and a few different lads start on Wednesday night.

Waste of time these games against mickeymouse college teams

We seriously need to find some genuine defenders and a very good defensive system before the league starts or we are going to have another uncomfortable league campaign.
In the forwards Adam Tyrrell had an excellent game and was one positive to come out of today,

Think you're being a bit harsh lads. Winning or losing at this time of year makes no difference in the long run. What we should be looking for are two or three players who can improve the team. If you look at today's game Tyrell stands out as someone who could step up. When was the last time a Kildare player scored 9 points in one of his first couple of games.
If the next day someone else plays as well then we could have two improvements and so on. Looking for wholesale changes and a sudden iron clad defence is not the order of the day. Fitness, player development and squad improvement are what's important.

e.s.b. wrote:

We seriously need to find some genuine defenders and a very good defensive system before the league starts or we are going to have another uncomfortable league campaign.
In the forwards Adam Tyrrell had an excellent game and was one positive to come out of today,

Was interested to see that Kevin Feely played full back for DCU yesterday. Would have a good defensive and organisational mentality from playing CB in soccer presumably. Might prove an option in a problem position for us the last few years.

Rex wrote:

The one thing that annoyed me no end and reflected very poorly on a section of support was the jeering of Tomas O'  Connor when he failed to score or got crowded out. Some people need to have a hard look at themselves.

Looking forward to Wednesday.

Didn't hear the jeering from where I was standing but that's an appalling and childish reaction

Feely at full-back would be interesting. He'd be good under the high ball and should be used to thinking as a defender from the soccer.
I think Peter Kelly is more suited to the corner. A couple of times yesterday he committed himself to a long ball, missed it and could have given away a goal.

A good first game in all fairness. 24 points in those conditions is good scoring. Adam Tyrrell was very good. Hopefully he'll stay commited. I think the last new commer to shoot the lights out like that was John O Donohuge from Kilcock he kicked 10 points against Athelney IT but never reached those highest again.