Kildare Ladies Football News Round Up

Kildare Ladies Football News Round Up

Maynooth continued their progress through Leinster with a win over Offaly Club, Shamrocks, in Mucklagh on Sunday. Once again Simone Gilabert gave the lead with a brace of goals while Eimear Connolly also supplied one and Aodhin McBride with 1 – 1 and Hazel Mulligan with four points also starred but defenders Aisling Farrell and Catriona Dolan were the real stars of the show.

On next Saturday Maynooth play in a Leinster Final for the first time and follow the lead of Confey, Grangenovlan, Leixlip and Eadestown who all qualified for this event with all bar Leixlip coming out as winners. Let’s hope Maynooth came emulate that successful trio and they have the advantage of a Kildare venue as Geraldine Park Athy hosts the Final as part of a double header, the Railyard v Kiloe Intermediate Final completing the bill.
Maynooth’s opposition are Wexford’s HWH Bunclody for whom Eileen Hanrick is the best know name. The local secondary school has featured strongly in Leinster schools competitions over recent years so it’s expected the Wexford club will field a very youthful side. Now , apart from Ann Marie Farrell, Hazel Mulligan and Simone Gilabert, Maynooth’s most experiences players are Catriona Dolan, a veteran at 21, Eimear Connolly, Fiona Bradley and Siobhan McCourt all of 19, while the rest are Minor and a couple of Juveniles. Now Rachel Tallon has 2 years as County Minor goalkeeper and also played in a couple of National League games so she is well used to big occasions as are Aisling Farrell, Sinead Murray and Aodhin McBride who has 3 years of County Senior experience although also just 19. While Kildare Clubs have generally had the upper hand when paired with Wexford opposition in Provincial Championships it would be unwise to take ant County Champions lightly and the Maynooth brains thrust of Anto Mooney and Ann Marie Farrell are a bit too cute to get caught out underestimate opponents.
Let’s hope Maynooth can pull this one off and if they do there will be a need for a lot of support to fund a trip to play the All Ireland Quarter Final in Liverpool against the British Junior Champions. So if and we hope it does come to, congratulations a winning team on Sunday, supporters should have the cheque books at the ready.
Leixlip made short work of Naomh Malachi on Sunday and in truth this game was over after 12 minutes when Leixlip lead 2 – 5 to no score. Maria Moolick tore the Louth teams defence to shreds with Tara Kealy also dong a lot of damage. Having to line out without first choice defenders Aishling Savage and Aileen Quinn Leixlip might have been a bit concerned about their defence but it came up trumps, none more so than stand in full back Katie Roche. Katie bossed her area and led the defence in style giving a superb display.

Next up for Leixlip, in the Semi Final, is Clonee the Wexford Senior Champions, on Sunday with Leixlip having Home advantage. Clonee have a selection of Wexford County players including the Captain, Martina Murray who will probably be full back. They also feature Caroline Murphy, the Everard twins Ali and Liz as well as the tough Wexford full forward Josie Dwyer and Ciara Scallan. Leixlip will have a massive task on their hands to compete with the very experienced Wexford team who reached the Leinster Final in 2006. It’s certainly not beyond this bunch as they are as talented as any team around and with a bit of luck and plenty of home support they could just be the first Kildare Club to make the Leinster Senior Club Final.

Well done to Naas and Rathangan who pulled off Championship wins on Sunday while your correspondent was on duty in “Border Country”. Rathangan have fought for many a year to win a championship and the first will have been very sweet especially for great club servants, Dawn Power, Deirdre Kearney, Caroline Flood and Aileen Whelehan. While Moorefield are disappointed to lose in their first final they are a very young side whose most experienced trio, Amber Masterson, Dearbhail Kelly and Sheena O’Brien were all County Minors this year. If they stick at it and with a load of talented younger players coming through their day won’t be that far away.

In the Junior B the great Naas & St Laurence’s rivalry continued with Naas repeating their League Final win but again it was tight with the Larries wasting a lot of chances. Naas will be a big threat to all in the Junior A next year while St Laurence’s will be red hot favourites to win the B next time around.

Kilcock showed that they too are brining on young talent when they won the Minor D on Saturday. In Mary Tighe, Helen Macken, Orla Cagney, Aoife Divilly and Noelle Conlon they have a “handful” of excellent young footballers and they were missing injured County Minor Shauna Cagney. Robert Cox and Linda Byrne are doing great things with these youngsters and with the work of Sheena Byrne, Grainne Gormley presently interrupted and a couple more Kilcock will be a match for most over the next few years.
Athy are a very young team with none over 16. A few will be over age for Juvenile next term and the plan is to enter Adult ranks next spring with, hopefully, a couple of semi retired girls who saw action with Grangenovlan and other neighbouring clubs. Denise Brophy who was a fine midfielder when partnering Brianne Leahy is deeply involved, managing this Minor team with Joe Barry and doing an amount of coaching. Denise will probably return to action next year, while her sister and Catherine Bradley are other targets. If they can blend in the few experienced heads alongside Patriona Bolger, Michelle Foley, Ciara Fingleton, Shauna Mackey, Amy Mulhall and Clair Purcell they will have the making of a good Junior side.