O'Byrne Cup 2011 - Official Thread

i see fergal barry is doing wexford v DIT and brendan hickey is doing carlow v kilkenny

How many times has David Lyons left the panel hopefully thats for good now.

How many times has David Lyons left the panel hopefully thats for good now.

Stupid comment, the guy is a fine player much underused by Kildare .

Muvverfuk wrote:

How many times has David Lyons left the panel hopefully thats for good now.

Stupid comment, the guy is a fine player much underused by Kildare .

Ahh here, while I mightn't exactly agree with the wording of steviegenius, underused by Kildare is a bit rich........ David.

David Lyons when given a chance has never let Kildare down, maybe a chance during the O'Byrne cup would have helped, hope its only a rumor. Chalky fits into same bracket needs to be played in a position and not moved all over the pitch give him the Number 6 jersey for a number of games.

to be honest everyone fit i can`t see david lyons breaking into the starting team but he is a good utility player to have in the panel, hope chalky is playing this year he would be my first choice for number 6. good to see lads like brophy getting there chance and tommy o`neill also conor tiernan was impressed with him in the championship last year

Lyons is a quality back. You dont understand football if you cant see this. All these people jumping on the Kevin O'Neill bandwagon when hes been poor for 2/3 years yet they dont recognise that Lyons is a good player. And Ive no allegiances to anyone at Clane. When Kildare were pitiful against Donegal in Croker league and Meath subsequemntly, he was our best player. I can remember when he had the nightmare task of marking the unmarkable Big Niall Sheridan on his Champo debut again Longford. Though Sheridan caused us all sorts of problems, the young buck fronted up and did well. Hasnt had enough opportunites since. I wonder was Geezer annoyed by him taking time off to travel last year.

Muvverfuk wrote:

Lyons is a quality back. You dont understand football if you cant see this. All these people jumping on the Kevin O'Neill bandwagon when hes been poor for 2/3 years yet they dont recognise that Lyons is a good player. And Ive no allegiances to anyone at Clane. When Kildare were pitiful against Donegal in Croker league and Meath subsequemntly, he was our best player. I can remember when he had the nightmare task of marking the unmarkable Big Niall Sheridan on his Champo debut again Longford. Though Sheridan caused us all sorts of problems, the young buck fronted up and did well. Hasnt had enough opportunites since. I wonder was Geezer annoyed by him taking time off to travel last year.

I agree that Lyons is a good player.
McGeeney has said all along that you have to want to play for your county, there is no point in being on the panel unless your willing to give 100%.
I dont think McGeeney was annoyed by him taking time off, I would imagine more so it was about David Lyons having to prove himself
when he did come back, you couldn't expect him to walk straight back onto the team.
He would have been a great option to have, but someone else now will get the chance, and who knows maybe they might be the next Peter Kelly.

I didn't read anywhere about people saying he was a bad player. I always thought he was more suited to an attacking half back position, but where do you fit him in the current set-up? Drop Flats or Bolton? Deffo not.

Team for Sunday. Due to flu & some unavailable, it's experimental for game with Longford.


1. Shane Connolly St Laurence’s

2. Ollie Lyons Celbridge

3. Damien Hendy Castledermot

4. Kieran Fitzpatrick Kilcock

5. Eamonn Callaghan Naas

6. Mick Foley Athy

7. Mark Scanlon Round Towers

8. Hugh Lynch Confey

9. Padraig O’Neill St Laurence’s

10. Tomás Moolick Leixlip

11. Eoin O’Flaherty Carbury

12. Mark O’Sullivan Celbridge

13. Fionn Dowling Suncroft

14. Willie Heffernan Nurney

15. Karl Ennis Maynooth



Subs: 16. Shane McCormack (Allenwood); 17. Ronan Walsh (Cappagh); 18. Eamonn McCormack (Sallins); 19. Jamie Lambe (Kilcullen); 20. Paddy Dunne (Athy); 21. Emmet Bolton (Eadestown); 22. Alan Smith (Sarsfields); 23. Eoin Naughton (Clane); 24. Ciaran Kelly (Moorefield); 25. Austin Nevin (Caragh); 26. Conor Tiernan (Sarsfields).

interesting looking team, would have like to see somebody else full back tbh, think we know what hendy offers. personally think Moolick and Dowling could be very good players for Kildare even in this years championship, dont know much about kieran fitzpatrick though.

where fitzpatrick play wit kilcock!!!flu must have kicked in pretty badly,good try to lads though in this type of tourament

This is exactly what the O'Byrne cup is for. Nice to see a a totally different forward line tried. This could give us options in the coming year. A couple of big hitters in Smith and Bolton if things need changing.

Looking forward to this now and to see a few new faces is a bonus.

Good to see some of the young players being tried out.

interesting looking subs bench too when ya take the lads from last year out of the equation. great to see lads being tried out.

good to some new faces on team . why are still playing hendy ?

new lads are worth a try. good few juniors there. are mark whelan, barry noone and james eaton not there anymore. thought they would be worth a shot . hopefully some shine and come into the frame

Eaton is carrying an injury and has been for the last year. I believe he needs to take a year out.
Hendy is playing because he has been the model professional in terms of training, attitude and commitment.
Say whatever you want about his ability but his pride in pulling on the Kildare jersey has never been in question even though sometimes he's been far down the pecking order.

patw14 wrote:

new lads are worth a try. good few juniors there. are mark whelan, barry noone and james eaton not there anymore. thought they would be worth a shot . hopefully some shine and come into the frame

all carrying injuries

don't ever remember Damien Hendy getting a roasting by anyone in all the years he has been involved. A fair record. Not too many can say that.

If Damien Hendy hadn't gone off injured in the second half of the 2002 Leinster Final I think we'd have won that match. He's been a great servant through some tough years and with Kelly and McGrillen tied up with their college teams, we're not exactly flush with full-back options. Eoin Naughton should get a run there in the second half though.

Looking forward to seeing a few of the younger lads in action, particularly Moolick and Dowling. Good opportunity for the two Celbridge lads to force their way into the squad too. Don't know much about Fitzpatrick but I think he's played most of his football around midfield and half-forward. Interesting to see how he gets on in the corner.

The thing people have to realise now is that McGeeney is essentially picking from 50-60 players.

The juniors are training alongside the seniors and are doing everything that they are doing. We saw last year that the squad is very much open right up until the final stages of the All-Ireland.

It's definitely the way to go. Nobody can afford to get complacent on the senior panel because if they do, they will be dropped down to the juniors fairly lively.

And there is still the pick of the under 21's to come in before the end of the league as well.

Things are looking very rosy, competition is the most important thing amongst a squad and we now have that in abundance. Lets hope the newbies take their chance on Sunday. They have all proved to be very good club players and deserve their chance and I don't think it will be too long before we see Tommy O'Neill again either.

Is Conor Brophy injured or playing with college team?

Conor Brophy is unavailable due to college exams... He trained in Ballykelly on Thursday night. Geezer said in interview that he has 17 of last year's 34 players available to him, plus if he had to rely on the 24 men picked for last year's league on Thursday night, only 8 would have trained.... Plenty of opportunity for lads to stake a claim. Mark O'Sullivan & Conor Tiernan looked v sharp in training....

its good to see greezer giving all these new players a chance to shine this year, with so many lads out and retiring, its a good way of seeing the depth of quality of players we have coming on. its a pity he did'nt do the same thing at this time last year instead of playing the likes of JD and Dermot in these types of games. a few lads that were knocking around from last years junior panel were not afforded the same opportunity and some have now emigrated and would benefited from these type of games. anyway hope we get off to a good start with a win. any news on admission prices for match sunday?