Division 2 2023

Be nice to see Mick O’ Grady run out with the st. Brigid’s cross for the week that’s in it.

1 Donnellan
2 O’Grady
3 Ryan
4 Houlihan
5 Malone
6 D Hyland
7 Archbold
8 Masterson
9 O’Callaghan
10 N Flynn
11 K Flynn
12 Cribbin
13 Woodgate
14 Kirwan
15 J Hyland

Subs, O’Neill, McDermott, Feely, Joyce, Sargent, Beirne, Coffey, McMonagle, McCormack, Glynn, Robinson.

Happy to see that fullback line start. If Feely isn't 100% fit then I don't think it's worth the risk bringing him on at any stage but a very positive sign to see he's in a squad this early in the year.

No sign of Dan unfortunately

My stomach sank after the early goal. Same feckin' tactic as the Leinster final. Down the flanks, cut back in, and hand pass to the free man. Piss easy and the inability to learn lessons in Kildare GAA is very frustrating.

However, we've competed well since. Should have got a few more scores. Couple drop shorts again. Dublin a fair few uncharacteristic wides though so I still fear they will pull away at some stage. But no first half rout.

Jack is looking electric. He's so silky on the ball. The crowd appears to be fawning over him when he's on the move.

Our kick outs are hurting us so far

The referee is hurting us too!

I might take up reffing because I couldn’t be any worst than the fellow in the middle today ! Simply awful !

What must Glen Ryan have said to the refs? Seems he stoked the bear for the first portion of the 2nd half. Poor stuff with strange calls all over. Two of the Kildare overcarries were possibly the harshest I've ever seen considering the modern game has all but abandoned the rule. An excellent smother and dispossession penalised too.

Won't say it cost us anything. Left that behind. Dublin brutal shooting all night.

Archbold hitting the post a killer. Need to sharpen up the shooting.

John_R wrote:

What must Glen Ryan have said to the refs? Refereeing the 2nd half has been poor with strange calls all over. Two of the Kildare overcarries were possibly the harshest I've ever seen considering the modern game has all but abandoned the rule. An excellent smother and dispossession penalised too.

Won't say it cost us anything. Left that behind. Dublin brutal shooting all night.

Archbold hitting the post a killer. Need to sharpen up the shooting.

He received a yellow card just before the second half started.

Overall no complaints with the end result, plenty of positives but need a big performance next week against Cork.

Thought Malone was doing well before been substituted and Houlihan was superb.

Some good other performances too.

Kildare lose to a team where the oppositions set of forwards all
were under par.

A big improvement since Leinster final and unlucky not to take anything from it.

A one point loss to the dubs in croker lads is not bad going. We fought brought the fight to them and the heads never went down.
Big improvement I would be much happier going to croker in the summer for Leinster after that display

Thought we did ok. Still making ridiculous mistakes and losing the ball in contact. Found it hard going trying to break them down while they walked in a number of scores. The goal was telegraphed it was so obvious what was happening.

Lost the ball numerous times when a Kildare player was favourite to win it and kicked at least three into the keepers hands.
We also took on stupid shots which is a serial issue for this team.

However we never gave up, kept the heads down and worked hard. Once we realised we were in the game with 25 to go we suddenly hit harder, moved quicker and kept the mistakes down to a minimum. Unfortunately we didn't take the goal chance when it came.
Fitness looked decent, lads still going at the end.

At the end of the day it was a loss, but how long has it been holding Dublin to one point in Croke park. The lads need to build on that and take it forward.

League defining game next week against Cork

Definitely an improvement, but Dublin where at 60%, and still didn’t take are chances, god only knows what a full strength Dublin will do to us come summer

That's it Rex. Plenty to build on there, but ultimately it means nothing if we don't beat Cork. Massive game in terms of this season.

The flour bags wrote:

Definitely an improvement, but Dublin where at 60%, and still didn’t take are chances, god only knows what a full strength Dublin will do to us come summer

They might have been but Kildare were no where near full pelt either from the looks of it. I'll take it on its merits.

Some promising signs tonight, not many would have expected us to get so close. Heads could have easily dropped after the goal early on but we got stuck in and kept within 3 or 4 for pretty much the whole game then.

13 of that Dublin team played against Kerry in the semi final last year so bar the Crokes lads to come back in they’re not far off full strength. They’ll get stronger as the league goes on so getting them out of the way first might be a bit of a bonus, especially if anything comes down to score difference.

Dublin kicked a few poor wides and wasted some good opportunities but we did plenty of that ourselves at times too. Dropped shots into the square and a kickout under hit by Donnellan after Jack Robinson made it a 1 or 2 point game in the first half. Kevin Flynn kicked a ball into space that was covered by 4 or 5 defenders at one stage late in the 2nd half as well, but you’d hope things like that are more down to rustiness and lack of serious game time than anything else.

Robinson looks very, very exciting, seems to have a similar impact or expectation to Dan Flynn when he gets the ball in a bit of space and bursts into a run. Great to see Feely come on and look comfortable as well, would like to see him eased back in of course but he’ll be a massive plus if he’s good to get a bit longer next week.

Bit more composure on the ball and some quicker movement off the ball inside the 45 would be good to see next week.

Encouraging to hear Glenn afterwards saying he doesn’t do moral victories and the only positive to take from tonight is minutes in the legs.

No harm in being a bit more optimistic about the Cork game after tonight.

Looks like we’re getting there with a defensive plan. As with last year, the full back line were very good. Today they got a bit more protection on front of them. That’s the inclusion of Davy Hyland and dropping Kev Flynn back. So kudos to the management for that.

Dropping balls short has to end! Either score it, or kill it! It’s so demoralising to see and allows the opposition to immediately attack us when our players are out of position.

Kirwan is so frustrating. His work rate is cat, but he’s a quality shooter.

Great to see Neil Flynn running at players again.

Ben, Dan and Feely to come back into contention to starts soon so that’s good too.

Darragh Malone. Quietly goes about his work and rarely loses the ball.

It will be interesting to see what cork and Meath look like tomorrow. It’s vital we win our home games.

Disappointed we lost, but happy with what I can see on the pitch. We may be starting to pull a plan together.

I thought it was a good display and if we are going to continue to play a defence game we need to stick with it.improvement will be moving the ball much quicker from defence because if we are that slow every team we play will have plenty of time to pack their defence.dublin are brilliant at moving the ball quickly from goalkeeper out and we will have to do the same if we are going to get the best out of our forwards.hopefully we can get that right.thought David hyland was very good and was always looking to find a man with a ball inside

The intensity of the Mayo v Galway game was scary compared to our game.

It was heartening to see a couple of times during different stages of the match when we could have dropped the heads - early goal concession, 4 pointsndoen just after HT, turner over at crucial times we somehow dug a little deeper and found it to stay in the game . Yes Dublin were under par. But one can only assume we were also. Its both our first games of 2023.

I thought the referee was absolutely abysmal.
Shocking actually. I will rematch the match in full on tv tomorrow, but I wouldn't need to watch too closely to see that he officiated us completely differently to Dublin. But this is nothing new for Dublin in Croke Park.

I liked seeing a little bit of bite in us. We're far too nice a footballers in general. We're notorious for it.
There was a bit of a melee in 2nd half and I would really have liked so see one of our lads properly upend one of the Dubs. They've bullied us now for the best part of a decade. I genuinely don't mind getting out footballed. But by god never take a step back. Even if you're 20pts down. I really hope they carry this into the coming games as Div.2 is going to be a dogfight

There’s alot of positives to take from today. The desire of the lads, not dropping the heads after conceding a goal after 5 minutes, a clear defensive structure and Jack Robinson. It is clear to see the management team have learn an awful lot from last years Leinster final. Not many teams in this division will get within a point of Dublin, that could prove crucial come the end. We have room for improvement. Next weeks game V Cork is absolutely vital now. Newbridge has to be a fortress for us, let’s pack the ground and get up and running!

Robinson was a big positive. Looked sharp , not afraid to shoot and kept showing. Experiment with Kevin flynn sweeping is worth perservering with . A good few positives. Masterson and cribbin for me would need to improve . Would like to have seen jimmy stay on the pitch down the stretch. But all in all , a respectable start. Onwards and upwards

Jack robbinson breath of fresh air takes the game to the opposition so sharp and electric tought neil Flynn kicked away a lot of stupid shooting Ik he had positives but a lot of mad shots , lots of times it looked like the dubs where gonna rally on but fair play today at least we kept there and didn’t drop the heads , just still think dubs got there chances far too easy got in around the scoring zone so simple , which our scores where fought so hard to get them they’d go down get a simple score but all in all I think it’s a positive today …

Shit result
Decent performance
Heartening to see the fight at crucial times such as after the goal and when Dubs were getting on top in the second half. Great to see Kildare going for the game. Great to see a few hits going in from our lads.Jack Robinson is a positive. The management appear to have taken lessons on board from last year and have adapted to their credit. I could see some positive influence from new additions to the backroom team. We need to build it now or it's worthless, we should be expecting full points from Cork onwards.