Kildare hurling manager Brian Dowling reacts to first win in charge

Speaking on the field after his Kildare side's convincing Kehoe Cup win over Wicklow, manager Brian Dowling said, “The scoreline will tell you it was fairly comfortable, we just worried about ourselves today and tried to get ourselves right. We’ve been looking forward to it, because you can do all the training you want but it's important to see it in competitive games. The first 15-20 minutes were frustrating. We left a lot of scores behind us, but in fairness to the lads they picked it up in that second quarter, it was very impressive at 3-9 to 0-2. It was a job done, but there will be tougher tasks ahead now.”

Kildare certainly did leave plenty behind them early on as they hit four wides and dropped one short in just the opening seven minutes. It is far from something to be concerned about in the middle of January, but the Kildare players that were a part of the 2023 squad will know how badly their shooting accuracy cost them last year.

“We were getting the chances, we just weren’t clinical enough. We wasted a lot of the ball in the first half and goal chances too. But look, the lads stayed at it, it’s January, there are going to be a lot of mistakes made. It is about how they react and in fairness I thought they reacted very well and positively throughout the game. We put up a big score, which is good,” Dowling said.

A man who himself notched a few wides before putting up a big score was Jack Sheridan, an undoubtedly welcome addition to the Kildare set-up this year. Sheridan was crowned Kildare Club Player of the Year as Naas hurlers notched five-in-a-row and will now be expected to lead Kildare’s attack moving forward.

Dowling said of Sheridan's return, “Looking at the Naas games last year you can see how good Jack is. He is excellent in the dead ball situations, but he is a finisher. You can see that today from the goals he got

today.”