Comment: Now is the time to reappoint Diane O'Hora in Kildare
In the immediate aftermath of the glory of Kildare’s All-Ireland Intermediate Championship win, Diane O’Hora spoke about the county's prospects for 2024 and the Senior Championship.
Her wording on the matter was very deliberate, having used the term ‘we’ to that point in reference to her team’s glory, she chose to say ‘Kildare’ when it concerned matters of next year.
This is because the All-Ireland win signifies the end of her one-year deal in charge.
It was Diane's first year as Kildare manager, having been a selector previously, and oversaw All-Ireland and Leinster Intermediate Championship wins and led Kildare back into Division 2, where they have not been since 2017.
The coming days and weeks need to not solely be ones of celebration for Kildare LGFA, as they must now secure the Mayo legend for 2024 and beyond.
The usual structure of a one-year deal for Kildare managers must be abandoned and Diane O’Hora and her team must be repaid for their success with faith.
I believe Kildare can do a better job a level up than what some are giving them credit for, but it is not a one-year job to achieve further title success. This management team must be allowed to set out their roadmap to senior success across multiple seasons.
Kildare lost one game all year and won every trophy available to them, plenty of elite coaches would want the job of managing our senior newcomers. But those things typically take time to adjust, dynamics of the group will be different and most watching this team this year know that we have the right person and staff already in place.
This piece may be hyper paranoid and Diane is simply choosing her words carefully and showing humility, as she always has, by not presuming she will be kept on. However, as a Kildare man through and through I always assume we will ruin whatever great thing we have going for us and Diane O’Hora as the Kildare Ladies manager is currently one of those great things.
A crucial point of course is the woman herself, how does she feel?
Maybe Diane wants to move on and believes that she has done the job in Kildare that she set out to. If that is the case then you just have to hold your hands up and bid adieu to an incredible servant of Kildare football during her time here.
The Meath job is of course what is filling me with dread, the opportunity to take back over the revolution she started is of course an enticing prospect, especially for such an ambitious manager. But there is a great case in spite of that for Kildare, their promotion to Division 2 puts them in great stead ahead of Senior football.
I believe this Kildare team can really mix it when they go up a level, it will be a tough 2024 back at the top table but the experience will be invaluable to the group. If they can retain their spot at senior they will only go from strength to strength each year, especially when you see the talent coming through at underage levels.
Kildare have been in the ascendancy for a lot of their games this year and that will likely change as they face higher quality opposition. That being said, there is typically much more ebb and flow to a ladies football game compared to their male counterparts.
Nevertheless, The Lilies will likely have to adapt in and between games, a stand-out strength this year, more than previously. There are countless examples of a tweak from the Kildare sideline that has tipped the balance in their favour in games this year. That tactical nous will be vital as they move up a level in both league and Championship football.
The team around Diane O’Hora is another interesting factor, as many of those members as you could keep the same is important. There haven’t been many post-match interviews that have gone by where the Kildare boss hasn’t mentioned Con Brennan, Brian Noonan and the rest of her team. The coaching staff all clearly serve their function expertly and I hope to see them working their magic in a Kildare dugout in 2024.
The exuberant joy of the All-Ireland and therefore treble win has now been changed to a desire to see more of what this set-up can do together.
This Kildare squad is an incredibly exciting outfit and keeping those players on a path to more success starts with the retention of the manager that has led to where they are now.
We can’t rest on our laurels, the Kildare LGFA need to be on this and on this now.
The basking in the glory of this win can now be left to those great players who deserve every bit of it, and everyone else needs to get their ducks in a row for the Kildare Ladies’ 2024.