Westmeath v Kildare

Well, we're in the home run to the opening match - what thoughts on this one?

A tough opener, given that Westmeath have accompanied us on our Journey down from Div 1 to 3. I hope that I am proven wrong but I think we could struggle early in this campaign, solely because some of the opposition have more work done with their squads over the past 2 years and will have more settled teams and game plans, such as W'meath, Sligo, Tipp. We have a lot to do, we are in trouble in the back line, short a dominant enforcer at midfield and while we have some new potential in the forward line it has yet to be put together. It depends on the quality of work the lads have done since the O'byrne cup, a win next week would be a great result.

Not overly optimistic about this either. Didn't see a lot to get enthusiastic about in the O'B C, other than Dan Flynn and a glimpse of the potential of Adam Tyrell. Other than that it was very much the same as before with too many players of a similar level. I think O'Neill will take time to impose his game plan on this squad and the lack of availability of college players and injured players will hamper us in the opening games. I think Moolick and Cribbin will be missed in particular around the middle so Flynn's return and apparent fitness level is a bonus. Westmeath is a tough one but not one we can't win. Hard to call. I think all the teams in this division are relatively closely matched and I don't think it's going to be a straightforward division - can't see one team winning all 7 games.

Will be interesting to see our line-up although I imagine it will still be under-strength and somewhat experimental.

Kildare played Laois today in Hawkfield at 2. I'd say the team that started would give us an indication of the team for next Sunday. Paul Cribben played 40 minutes. Anyone at it?

Difficult to predict what type of a team we will be looking at next Sunday. There are a lot of niggly injuries going on the interviews O'Neill has given and there are quite a few lads involved in Sigerson over the next fortnight. The three O'Byrne Cups teams also showed little continuity.

I expect a lot of the more experienced heads will be starting and there won't be too much experimentation considering it is probably the trickiest fixture of the campaign along with Tipp in Thurles.

I wouldn't be too confident of getting a result but I'm sure Westmeath will have similar issues to ourselves. Any sort of a win would be great because it buys you a bit more breathing space for the rest of the campaign.

Big match to start the league with. If we win, we should be well on the way to promotion with our 4 home games. It's a hard one to call. We'd have to improve a good bit from the performances in the O'Byrne Cup. It will be interesting to see what style of play Cian O'Neill is trying to impose. It was hard to tell in the O'Byrne Cup - apart from us maybe trying to kick-pass a bit more.

It's hard to predict a team at this stage. I presume Tommy Moolick is out but I'd be hopeful Paul Cribbin and Eoin Doyle will be back. I wouldn't think he'd start the Under-21s either. We are very short for options in the full-forward line. I'd go for something like:
Donnellan
Fitzpatrick Peter Kelly. Lyons
Hyland Eoin Doyle Bolton
Daryl Flynn. Daniel Flynn
Paul Cribbin (or Feely) O'Flaherty Tyrell
McNally. Padraig O'Neill. Niall Kelly

jim wrote:

Kildare played Laois today in Hawkfield at 2. I'd say the team that started would give us an indication of the team for next Sunday.  Paul Cribben  played  40 minutes.  Anyone at it?

Behind closed doors apparently - what that achieves in the middle of January is beyond me

Did we win? What was the team like?

So is moolick and Cribben ruled out of sigerson? Good news for us if it's the case. Also is feely playing for dcu?

Kildare won by a point I heard this morning.

This I would imagine will be at least our toughest assignment in this division and a win here will set us up nicely.. which I think we'll achieve.

Westmeath 6/4. Kildare 4/6. Draw 15 / 2.

Not sure what those odds are based on. We couldn't beat them in Conleths last year and they played a lot better in Leinster than we did. Also we are probably missing more college players than them.
We wont know where we are until all our players are available and that might be a while depending on the U21's. A win would be very encouraging.

I like those odds tbh.. and don't want to be basing it on last year's showings.. I'm heading good things from inside the camp.

jim wrote:

Kildare won by a point I heard this morning.

Heard Eanna was the star. And daryl flynn is flying.

Savage, it's starting too look good, Im getting optimistic Can't wait for Sunday!!

P Cribbin starting for Maynooth University tonight - got to be positive news..

Maynooth beaten is even better news.

Paul Cribbin, Fergal Conway and Neil Flynn played the full match for Maynooth, who lost by 2 points to Queens.

Kevin Feely didn't play for DCU and Daniel Flynn didn't play for Athlone IT. Cien McMonagle scored a couple of nice points for Athlone but DCU won easily.

That's the last 2 years maynooth have been beaten in first round, by not the strongest teams. Chris Healy and sherry also played for Carlow, Healy got a nice goal

Any idea of a team for Sunday. I know we have a lot of injuries so it will be interesting to see that the team will be.

I'd imagine it will be similar to the team that played laois on Sunday.

Anyone know who played against Laois on Sunday?

Kildare team V WH M.Donnellan P.Kelly C Fitzpatrick O.Lyons J.Byrne F.Conway R.Houlihan D.Flynn D.Hyland A.Tyrell E O'Flaherty P.Cribbin N.Flynn N.Kelly C McNally from Club Kildare

Daryl Flynn in midfield