Kildare SFC final: Naas 1-7 Celbridge 1-6
A new stadium, or a freshly redeveloped one at least, but the same old story in the Kildare Senior Football Championship as Naas collected the title for the fourth year running.
This was the tightest and probably the toughest of Naas’ successes though, and Joe Murphy’s side were pushed all the way.
A crowd of 5,426 turned out for the first game at the new-look Cedral St Conleth’s Park. If they were hoping for a scoring extravaganza to mark the occasion they were let down as this was more of a tense arm wrestle.
The wet and windy conditions, and greasy pitch, mitigated against a classic and Darragh Kirwan’s five-point haul, including the winning score in the 60th minute, proved decisive.
Dermot Hanafin’s early goal for Naas, the first score in the new stadium, was significant too, as was the 52nd minute dismissal of Celbridge sub Paddy Brophy.
The former Kildare and AFL player was only on the pitch a matter of seconds when he was shown a straight red by referee Brendan Cawley for an off-the-ball incident.
Celbridge were a point ahead at that stage and had their opportunities to at least take a draw but coughed up two late points to Naas’ county players Alex Beirne and Kirwan which tipped the balance.
Naas will return to the ground on Saturday week to play Dublin champions Cuala under lights in the Leinster club quarter-final. Before then, two of their players, Brian Byrne and James Burke, will return with the club’s hurlers for next weekend’s county final.
“I’m in the lucky position that I get to prepare again for another county final,” said Byrne. “It’s been a fantastic couple of weeks, well, a fantastic couple of years really.”
Byrne acknowledged that the weight of the four-in-a-row quest was felt in the lead up.
“This year, I don’t know about within our group, but certainly on the outside the whole talk was about this historic four-in-a-row,” he said. “But they’re all as sweet for us, honestly.”
It’s back-to-back final defeats to Naas for Celbridge who were beaten by two points last year in Carlow.
They’ll regret Brophy’s dismissal but more so the scoring opportunities they failed to convert over the hour, shooting five wides and dropping as many point attempts short also.
They were particularly wasteful early on and were punished when Naas then scored that goal from Hanafin, a terrific solo effort.
Naas found their range then with three points in a row, from Kirwan and Neil Aherne, and led 1-3 to 0-4 at half-time.
Former Kildare player Hugh McGrillen palmed in a Celbridge goal in the third quarter and the game was level three more times up to 1-6 apiece.
By that stage Brophy was off the pitch and while both sides had chances to kick the winner, it was Man of the Match Kirwan that held his nerve to do so right on the hour.
NAAS: L Mullins; M Maguire, R Fitzgerald, C McCarthy; E Lawlor, E Doyle, B Byrne; A Beirne (0-1, 1f), J Burke; R Sinkey, T Browne, Paddy McDermott; D Hanafin (1-0), D Kirwan (0-5, 1f), N Aherne (0-1).
Subs: Paul McDermott for Beirne 11-16 mins, C Daly for Fitzgerald 49, McDermott for Sinkey 50, K Cummins for Aherne 55, S Hanafin for T Browne 58.
CELBRIDGE: S McNamara (0-1, 1f); J Clarke, C Powell, M Konstantin; D O’Donoghue, F Conway (0-1), L O’Flynn; H McGrillen (1-0), M O’Grady; N O’Regan, K O’Callaghan, T Archbold (0-1); K Flynn, K Browne (0-2), A Browne.
Subs: D Hughes (0-1, 1f) for Flynn 46 mins, P Brophy for A Browne 50.
Referee: B Cawley (Sarsfields).
