Kildare out to buck trend and shock Dublin

ON paper, tomorrow’s TG4 Leinster Ladies SFC final between Dublin and Kildare at Dr Cullen Park is a formality.

The Dubs are title holders and during an impressive league campaign defeated All-Ireland champions Cork, while also whipping tomorrow’s opponents by 13 points. Kildare lost all their games bar one during the spring – recording a draw with Clare, who were blitzed subsequently by Dublin by 29 points.

It doesn’t make for pretty reading but a lot has changed for the Lilywhites since. A number of players have returned to the fold, while two-time All Star Brianne Leahy no longer has to worry about the commute to Scotland, where she studies.

Manager Paul Kelly brought in sports psychologist Ian Kingston and perhaps the most crucial element of it all was a bonding trip to the Avon Rí resort in Blessington, where Dublin forward Conal Keaney is marketing manager.

The players paid for it themselves and they have been a closer bunch since. That was evident in the semi-final defeat of Laois. Five points down with time almost up, Kildare clawed themselves back from the brink. Noelle Earley, sister of senior star Dermot, struck for the equalising goal and Kildare dominated extra time.

“We had been building towards that game” says Kelly. “We had a team bonding weekend in the Avon Rí a couple of months ago and since then, we’ve been building a very positive bond. Any win in the championship is positive but a win over Laois, having not beaten them before, has brought a great positivity to the group.”

Although a Dubliner, Kelly has been based in Kildare for a number of years and was manager when Eadestown won the All-Ireland club junior title in 2006. He knows all about Dublin’s strengths, with the scoring power of Sinead Aherne and Lyndsey Davey the biggest threats.

“Dublin are (one of) the only teams in the last couple of years to have beaten Cork. They are the Leinster champions, league semi-finalists, they have their eyes on being in an All-Ireland final next September so it’s going to be a very difficult assignment.”

Kildare have their own talent though. Apart from Leahy and Earley, captain Aisling Holton and sharpshooter Ashling Jennings are quality players.

“From our point of view, beating Laois was a significant target for us. Now we are in a Leinster final and are playing a team who are one of the top teams in the country. We just want to go out and do ourselves justice. Hopefully the people of Kildare will come out to support us. We’ve trained in the region of 80 plus times since December so a lot of effort has gone into it and it would be nice to see the girls get some backing.”