athy to dominate kildare football

will be the dominate force in senior football in the county for a good few yrs , very impressed by them over the last yr ...

what do you think fellow boardees..

wouldn`t say dominate, moorefield will be back next year larries could come good again and celbridge and athy will have some great battles over the next few years. there is no more than a kick of the ball between any of these sides

I wouldnt see them dominating either. They'll be there in the mix for a while aright but as was rightly pointed out, Moorefield will be back strong next year and Celbridge and Clane have been building young sides in recent times.

I would be very keen to see how these Athy flair players performa when there are proper defenders in their faces. I wouldnt imagine the defenders of Moorefield or Celbridge would lie awake worrying about them.

So enjoy your celebrations but dont get too carried away with yourself. One swallow never made a Summer no more than one championship made a legend!

Fair play to Athy yesterday. They were very impressive this year anyway and still a very young team.
I could see them winning more senior titles over the next few years alright.

I would be surprised if Athy win in 12 or 13, but the next 3/4 after that could well be theirs

(remember the young Kerry team of 75, it was 78 before they came back strong but then they swept it for years)

Now I'm not saying this young Athy team are that good but as a club side what's to stop them.

Celbridge, Moorefield & Larries !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What about Celbridge minors. No mention today ???????????????????

As an Athy man I was delighted with yesterday, and the future lools rosey, but talk of domination verges on the absurd. Whilst we played well this year we also had quite a bit of luck (Sarsfields implosion, Podge Fogarty missing the semi, two penalties missed in the semi, no huge injuries).

The win will give the team confidence but the aformentioned teams could easily take them in a one off game whilst the luck will have to regress to the mean at some stage.

Echo what you say clonmullin.. Good god, Sarsfields and Moorefield go awol at the business end for one year and then threads like this pop up!

Enjoy the success of winning one county title, treasure it. They are difficult to come about so enjoy the spotlight and the belief and satisfaction that being county champs brings about. However, winning one is the easy part. Dealing with expectation and the rest of the county trying to knock you off your perch is the difficult part. Just ask the Moores!

No doubt the foundations are in place for Athy to be one of the top senior sides over the next 5 years but talk of domination based on 1 win is lunacy.

By the looks of our new board member.... I feel this was a post after a night in the clubhouse in Gearldine Park....

Well done to Athy. This is certainly a reward for putting their energy into youth. It's paid dividends this year. Don't want Athy to get too confident as Celbridge have been churning out plenty of young stars and both Newbridge teams will be in the shake up. Athy a team certainly around for the long haul...

Total domination... We'll give it a few years to see how they get on...

Congrats to athy on a thoroughly deserved championship victory.
It's great for Kildare football that a young, hungry, determined team that can play attractive football can rise up through the ranks and win the championship. Enjoy it and best of luck for the Leinster campaign

Er... Forgot to say that I'm a grange man , I call it as I see it lads and lassies , as for saying that I posted the op from the club house , the last time I was in the clubhouse in Athy was for a Xmas party for the kids .

I think this win has come a couple of years earlier than anybody even in athy wud have thought. I think people thought it would take a couple of years for their young lads to develop at senior.

It hasn't.

How good can these players be in a couple of years when they do have some senior experience? The sky really is the limit. People are right to say that celbridge & clane have some good young players coming through but they have nowhere near the success of the athy lads. This genuinely could be the start of something amazing.

Sure they had a bit of luck along the way particularly in the semi final but most teams who win a championship have one game where they can look back and they were fortunate.

Their forwards were good enough to beat Laurences, twice, & sarsfields so nit picking at the carbury defence yesterday isn't really a convincing argument.

All these arguments are pie in the sky., The fact remains, Athy were the best placed team to take advantage when the favourites imploded - and they did.

I think its far too soon to predict multiple championships for these lads. Injuries, hunger, temprament, emigration and many other factors will determine the future of this team.

Personally, I wouldnt back them to beat a seasoned and proven team like Moorefield in the championship. But thats just me.

I hope they celebrate the win and saviour every moment of it. And then go give Edenderry a right good go. Would be nice for them to win a game or two in Leinster...

Great achievement by Athy and well done to them. Whilst a lot has been made of the age profile of their team I think we are seeing this trend in a number of teams enjoying success at the moment. At a recent intermediate quarter final one of the best players on show was just 17. A lot of clubs are blooding young talent and that can only be good for the game in Kildare. These guys are maturing much quicker as a result of development squads and the like. Hopefully this investment will put the county in good health over the coming years.

Well done to athy, a perfect example of good underage structures eventually being transformed into senior sucess. Best of luck in the leinster Championship.

FuturesWhite wrote:

.

Personally, I wouldnt back them to beat a seasoned and proven team like Moorefield in the championship. But thats just me.
...

They beat Laurence's twice & sarsfields, they also beat carbury twice who had beaten moorefield so they certainly proved that they can beat proven teams

I remember back in 2000 when Moorefield won their first senior title for almost 40 years. They had quite a young team with loads of good minor teams coming through and pretty much dominating underage football. It seemed as though they would be almost unbeatable after that.

They have won 4 more titles in the last 11 years but it's very difficult to win back to back titles or even win 3/4 in a row. There are now quite alot of teams playing at a good level in Kildare.

What would be good for Athy and Kildare would be to see someone like Cian Reynolds or Durroch Mulhall burst onto the county scene and continue to improve into a really top class forward. Kildare are in desperate need of a new star forward to take them to the next level. JD is a legend but it's time someone to come in a take the pressure off him now.

If Athy could establish 3/4 on the county team then I would certainly fear them more in the coming years as they have a strong panel now of good young players.

Mick Foley is expecting a few of the youngsters to be featuring with Kildare sooner rather than later!

http://www.daraghoconchuir.ie/blog.php?id=1425

You'd have to think a few of them will get the chance anyway. The question will be if they buy into the workload. If they do, there's real talent there - add Hurley, Dowling and Kildare should be in the mix for a few years yet after JD and Dermot walk off into the sunset

I haven't read all the recent threads so not sure if mentioned already but I thought Mick Foley's speech after the match on Sunday was very good. Reading the link above I like his attitude in terms of wanting to go on a win more for Kildare and Athy.

He has been in and out of the Kildare team over the last few years but would be brilliant for the team if he continues at full back and grows in stature there. He has already showed this year that he has the potential to be the best full back in Ireland (think he deserves an All Star).

Ogie wrote:

Mick Foley is expecting a few of the youngsters to be featuring with Kildare sooner rather than later!

http://www.daraghoconchuir.ie/blog.php?id=1425

You'd have to think a few of them will get the chance anyway. The question will be if they buy into the workload. If they do, there's real talent there - add Hurley, Dowling and Kildare should be in the mix for a few years yet after JD and Dermot walk off into the sunset

Only Geezer can be the judge of this. There were many experts predicting that the likes of Sean Fahy, Sean Murphy and Tommy O'Neill were good enough for the senior team the year Larries won a title. Im pretty sure the ame experts were out in force when Celbridge picked on up naming the likes of Mark O'Sullivan, Mick Wright or Shane Harte as county players.
The whole county believed the bulk of Glenn's U/21 team were good enough for senior football.
The truth, either these guys just werent up to it or they weren't willing to put in the effort it takes to get there.

Thankfully Geezer has a plan and knows what sort of player he's looking for. He has said repeatedly that players must be willing to work their way through the junior ranks if they are to be considered for the senior. So if the Mullhall's, Reynolds, Feely's or any other Athy youngsters are going to make it, they're gonna have to prove themselves at the next level. Then we'll see what the future has in store......

I think that's a given FW, haven't heard anyone say any different. The bar stools of Ireland are lined up with guys who have the necessary talent. Indeed I said it in the message you've quoted... the question is will they buy into the workload. That applies to every county team in the around. I always remember Ger Loughnane saying when Clare won the All-Ireland in '95 that he hadn't the best 15 hurlers in Clare and if he had, they'd have won nothing.

Futures White - I appreciate the main point of your thread but if the players are deemed good enought they will be straight into Senior set up same as the likes of Fionn Dowling.
I would also add that this Athy team are different to to the last couple of county winners in terms of their youth. The Celbridge players you named for example would have been at least 7 years older when they won the county a coouple of years ago than the Athy lads. And this is coming from a Celbridge man too may I add .....

"I always remember Ger Loughnane saying when Clare won the All-Ireland in '95 that he hadn't the best 15 hurlers in Clare and if he had, they'd have won nothing."

Brilliant. And true

Absolutely nonsense to say that Athy will dominate. They're still a very raw, naive side... Edenderry nearly got the better of them today and they're certainly no world beaters. Expect the Sash, Moores and Celbridge to come back strong next year.

From what I have seen I expect Feeley to join Foley on the Kildare team in the next few years. Other that that , I would be very surprised if any of the others developed into a top class inter - county player.

I think people are being very harsh. I have my reservations about Mulhall but he's only 20 and has time to mature. I reckon Reynolds (20) and Eaton (21) are very good, McGovern (20) is how you'd design a team player, Gibbons and Hyland were very, very impressive at 17 and 18 yesterday, while 19-year-old Feely is, as I've said many's the time, the best of them in my opinion and is sure to come under the AFL radar as well as soccer.

Yesterday was very tough, Edenderry had ten men behind the ball and yet if Athy's shooting hadn't been so bad, they'd have been out the gate.

They're in a Leinster quarter-final now, without Mick Foley and with seven U21s... it's obviously hard to say they'll dominate because the question mark is if the hunger is retained and they have the required commitment for the next ten years. If that was the case, and it is more likely if more of them are in the county set-up (the change in junior criteria is a blow in that regard), it is reasonable to assume that they will improve in terms of ability, strength, maturity and decision-making.