Naas make it four-in-a-row with victory over Maynooth in Kildare Senior Hurling Championship final
UPMC Senior Hurling Championship Final
Naas 0-20
Maynooth 0-12
Naas are Kildare’s Senior Hurling Champions for the fourth year running after beating Maynooth in a hard-fought final. Their first year in Senior Hurling it was always going to be tough for Maynooth to topple the dominant giants of Naas but they left nothing on the field come the final day. However, the quality throughout this Naas team is incredible and despite some brilliant individual marking jobs that kept some big stars quiet, Naas still ran out comfortable winners.
Maynooth would declare their intent early, they were absolute blood and thunder in the opening half. Every smack of a ball or turnover of possession was celebrated and their efforts earned them a free inside a minute.
Their semi-final hero and young star David Qualter stood over the free and dispatched it with a minimum of fuss. First blood to the underdogs.
Maynooth pressed hard, but not in every area of the pitch, it was a clear plan from Tom Walsh’s side to only shut down possession when either certain players were on the ball or when possession hit a certain area of the field.
The pressing triggers meant Naas players occasionally had ample time in possession but not in optimal areas. Naas did a mix of going long into the full-forward line, with no success, and aiming speculative shots at goal. The latter of which typically ended in a wide.
Finding their feet
Those quality players were always going to find their feet eventually, regardless of game plan. Cathal Dowling was the first man to register a score for the sitting champions.
His score was followed by what would come to be a familiar sight on the day, James Burke slotting over a set-piece. The Naas centre forward finished the day with 0-10 to his name, all of which coming from frees.
It had been a barren spell for Maynooth and they knew as well as anybody if they let this Naas side out of sight early, they were done. But their intensity in the opening half hour never waned, their strong tackling and quick bursts earned David Qualter a couple of more opportunities at goal.
Qualter, like his free-taking counterpart Burke, was incredibly reliable throughout this game and either side of the 10-minute mark slotted scores to draw his side level.
Naas’ lead was restored by Jack Sheridan via a superb sideline cut but Maynooth had a response as the team’s added some style to proceedings. Maynooth’s Adam Jordan drove down the line with ball in hand, penned in against the touchline, Jordan let fly and everyone in Maynooth colours was happy he did because he slotted the score of the day. On the run, against the line and at a terrible angle, an immaculate score.
A David Qualter free-kick brought this game to 0-6 to 0-5 still in Naas’ favour, before we saw the referee’s first intervention in what was undoubtedly the most fascinating battle on the day. Jack Sheridan vs Matt Eustace was a spectacle in and of itself.
Frustrated
Sheridan had not had a sniff of the ball either before or since his sideline score and was getting increasingly frustrated. After sufficient winding up from his marker, Sheridan lashed out at his man and saw yellow, perhaps lucky more severe action was not taken.
Naas would run out the winners but there was no denying who won this mini-battle. The Maynooth full-back reduced his star opposite number to no score from play until the 56th minute, when the game was already over.
Cathal McCabe would be the next man to get in on the scoring act and drew the sides level with just two to go in the first half. McCabe operated from a deep-lying position as Maynooth looked to stifle Naas’ attack.
This free-scoring Naas attack rarely doesn't grab a goal in any Kildare Championship game and in that sense things may have worked. But you can't help but feel a player of McCabe’s attacking quality would have been incredibly impactful further up the pitch.
A player who club captain Mikey Gillick attributed to being the most skillful in this team A catch-22 for the Maynooth management in that sense and hard to say that they chose wrong either way.
Level with little to go in the first, Naas put their foot on the accelerator to close out the half. Charlie Sheridan’s first score alongside a couple more of those reliable James Burke frees had Naas leading by three at the break.
Score board
It was 0-9 to 0-6 in the Champs favour and you came away from the half thinking that was a brilliant Maynooth showing in terms of effort, desire and taking their few chances. But you looked at the score board, they had given their all and were still trailing by three.
It is the nature of this Naas side, Naas had plenty of wides but Maynooth pressured them into many of them. They looked like they had not got going fully but were still in command and leading. There is a feeling of Manchester City-esque inevitability about this team and that is to their immense credit.
Maynooth’s Cathal McCabe grabbed the first score after the break and little did they know at the time it would be the last white flag raised in their name for some time. Naas took control and shut Maynooth out for the next 21 minutes.
All the while they racked up scores down the other end. Points from midfielders Simon Leacy and Rian Boran, like all other scores, were soon followed by a James Burke contribution from a dead ball.
Maynooth had run their race it seemed and it was Naas’ time to put some shine on that scoreboard.
It took until the 51st minute for Maynooth full-back Matt Eustace to enter the referee’s notebook for a loose challenge. Eustace had an incredible game alongside his full-back line of Josh Cahill and Daniel O’Meara. Two young men who were brilliant in their respective roles up against brilliant hurling operators like Charlie Sheridan and Naas captain Brian Byrne.
Stellar contributions
It is hard to remember much from either corner-forward and the pair amassed just 0-1 between them throughout this game. The credit for that goes to these two and their undoubtedly stellar contributions, in particular O’Meara at just 18 years of age. O’Meara made his Championhip debut in the preliminary round of this year’s Championship and is clearly a star for the future of Maynooth hurling.
The next moment of note was on the 56th minute as Jack Sheridan was awarded a score for an effort that could only be described as about a foot wide of the mark. It made little difference but nonetheless, not something you would want to see very often and something the Maynooth players were naturally exasperated by after a tough afternoon.
Naas chalked a few more scores before the referee's final whistle officially announced their status as Champions once more. It would be a shock to nobody to see them here again next year on the drive for five.
Naas will now look to put their mark on the Leinster Senior Club Championship which will turn the perspective on this team from dominant force into a plucky underdog. That is no indictment on the quality of the team but rather the achievement that it is for any Kildare side to be in such a competition in the sport of hurling.
This result will hurt Maynooth players and management and so it should. But it will only make them hungrier because everybody knows that sinking feeling of losing a final and everyone knows when they feel it, they never want to again.
Their manager Tom Walsh said this being their first year in Senior makes no difference and they won't look at this final as a bonus of any sort.
No team should see it that way and watching their effort today those XV lads didn't come for a nice day out in Conleth’s, they came to fight for that title.
In time they can reflect on an incredible campaign and look to the future and from what you can see on the field, it is bright. The age profile of brilliant players like Matt Eustace (20), Daniel O’Meara (18), Adam Jordan (20), David Qualter (19), Cathal McCabe (20)...you get the idea. And there are plenty more of them left unnamed, a strong outfit that is here to stay in Kildare Senior hurling.
SCORERS
Naas: James Burke 0-10 (0-10 frees), Jack Sherdian 0-3 (0-1 sideline), Cathal Dowling 0-2, Simon Leacy 0-2, Charlie Sherdian 0-1, Peter O'Donoghue 0-1, Rian Boran 0-1.
Maynooth: David Qualter 0-8 (0-7 frees), Cathal McCabe 0-2, Adam Jordan 0-1, Ciarán Flanagan 0-1.
TEAMS
Naas: Cormac Gallagher; John McKeon, Conan Boran, Peter O'Donoghue; Kevin Whelan, Seán Gainey, Harry Carroll; Simon Leacy, Rian Boran; Liam Walsh, James Burke, Cathal Dowling; Brian Byrne, Jack Sheridan, Charlie Sheridan. Subs: Darach Mac Donncha on for John McKeon (Blood sub 13 minutes) back on (16 minutes), Kevin Aherne on for Charlie Sheridan (60 minutes, Rian Monaghan on for Harry Carroll (63 minutes).
Maynooth: Sean Bean; Josh Cahill, Matt Eustace, Daniel O'Meara; Ciarán Flanagan, Fiachra Lohan, Ronan Dunne; Graham Kenny, Harry Dunne; Adam Jordan, Cormac Nolan, Matt Melia; David Qualter, Cian Forde, Cathal McCabe. Subs: Kevin Dunne on for Cormac Nolan (38 minutes), Michael Hogan on for Ronan Dunne (41 minutes), Eoin Kelleher on for Harry Dunne (48 minutes).
Referee: Brian Kearney