Lara Gilbert on Kildare glory and starting senior football at 13

Lara Gilbert has been a consistent presence in the Kildare ladies set-up for seven seasons and, alongside her teammates, etched herself into history in 2023 with three trophies in a calendar year.

The Kildangan native plays her club football for the amalgamated side Kildangan-Nurney and has played for the senior team since the age of 13.

“It is crazy. My Mam wasn’t so pleased to hear that I was playing with senior ladies at that age,” Lara recalled.

The Kildare wing-back was undoubtedly moulded by her experiences and grew up with two brothers in case even more steel was needed. Lara’s resilience and now almost veteran status at such a young age leaves her as one of the leaders at club level.

“We have a very young squad at the moment. I only got to watch a couple of the games this year and the operation is building as a collective. We still have a lot of youth on our side and we just need to develop that even more. We are coming up against teams who have had a lot more experience and we are just looking to build towards that,” Lara said.

The Kildangan-Nurney player would also get an early look at the Kildare senior squad after getting two training sessions under her belt following an All-Ireland ‘B’ Championship at minor level earlier that year (2018). The wing-back has remained in the Kildare panel ever since.

“Training has intensified massively in the last couple of years. In 2023 when everything blew up, the team just gelled so well together and the bond between all the girls was amazing. There was a shift towards the collective and anything that happened outside of the camp didn’t matter. We were just purely focused on performing at our highest and our own game,” Lara explained.

2023 was an incredible year in Kildare football and while struggles elsewhere continued, the Kildare ladies emerged as the story of the year. The Lilywhite ladies appointed Diane O’Hora for the ‘23 season after the Mayo legend’s involvement as a coach the year before and so began an incredible run for the county.

The Kildare ladies blitzed Division 3 with just one defeat and finished their promotion push with a dramatic 2-11 to 2-10 extra-time win over Clare in the final.

“That was pretty intense. It was an experience like no other. I am thinking back on it and just laughing to myself because it was just so crazy. The supporters were roaring and when it was blown to extra-time we almost couldn’t believe that there was going to be another 20 minutes. It was so warm, we were wrecked, but hearing those people in the stands just drove us on,” Lara recalled.

“It was like a tennis game, back and forth.”

Kildare had been languishing in Division 3 for quite some time, but a huge win and titanic performance was the key to unlocking all of what was to come.

“The way we dug our heels in showed the character of all the girls and what we were capable of doing. We had played Clare in our first league game that year and it was again a one-point margin and luckily in that game it went our way. That was the first we had shown that level of character as a team, being able to battle it out and get the job finished,” Lara said.

Lara and the ladies rolled straight through the Leinster Intermediate Championship too and took the provincial title after a 2-12 to 1-8 win over Wexford with starring roles from Lauren Burke and Róisín Byrne.

There was little time to ponder two trophies having already been won by the end of May as the All-Ireland Championship approached, where Kildare once again worked their way to a final showdown with Clare. After Parnell Park for the Division 3 final, it was now time for HQ on All-Ireland final day.

“To have a final in Croke Park was something that I have always wanted. I always wanted to play in Croke Park when I was younger and for it to actually happen was a bit of a ‘pinch me’ moment. To be able to play in such a big ground where all the top teams play was just unreal. It was a dream come true,” Lara said.

The Lillies rose to the occasion too and dominated proceedings for the first 50 minutes of the game. Goals from Suncroft pair Trina Duggan and Ellen Dowling and seven points from Róisín Byrne were the standout scoring contributions, with Lara herself adding to the tally to maintain Kildare’s three-point margin in the early stages of the game.

However, a late Clare blitz with two goals ignited drama and nerves inside HQ and after leading 2-10 to 0-8 with 10 to go, things were now nervy. Kildare closed out with smart use of the huge Croke Park pitch to achieve the unthinkable and win an All-Ireland Intermediate Championship with now three trophies won in 2023.

“It was disbelief when the final whistle blew. It was relief and then also like what had just happened. We had just played in Croke Park, our family and friends were all there, everyone was hugging each other, and the feeling was indescribable. It was one of those things that I will probably never get over,” Lara recalled.

Celebrations galore followed, but only some distance gave perspective on the whirlwind year and unprecedented success for Kildare.

“We only had an awards night for it this year and it was just mentioned that it was three trophies in one year and thinking back on it you’d say ‘what the hell’ because it is such an achievement. We kind of forget how much of an achievement it is,” Lara said.

That Kildare ladies squad with quality and grit in spades will be looked back upon incredibly fondly in years to come, with plenty of both coming their Kildangan-Nurney wing -back. An encapsulation of Lara's contribution was shown during the All-Ireland Intermediate Championship semi-final match against Wexford in Parnell Park. The Kildare no.5 on the day was sent back to the dressing room with a Lilywhite shirt stained red after a nasty collision.

Not 10 minutes after the press box thought of well wishes and pondered the likelihood of her appearance in a potential final, Lara emerged from the dressing room and was immediately thrust back into the fray. Kildare would of course emerge victorious. Blood, sweat, and tears.

It is far from all in the rear-view for Kildare too with a rampant Division 2 campaign in 2024 and another final win of Croke Park. Alongside four teammates, Lara was named in the Team of the 2024 Lidl National League for Division 2.

It was a tough start to life in the Senior Championship for Kildare with a heavy defeat to Dublin in their Leinster opener.

Despite improvement the following week, the Lilywhites never got going on the Senior stage in 2024.

“The teams that are in the Senior Championship have either been there for years or their team is well gelled. They had so much over us, but I think the experience let us down during the Championship,” Lara explained.

“It hit us…quickly and hard, but we’re still up in Senior and we definitely have a good bit to prove coming into it.”

After a fruitless All-Ireland Championship group stages and a frustrating loss to Donegal following a refereeing disasterclass, Kildare were confounded to a relegation final with Laois in 2024.

“We were raging that we were in a relegation final after the Donegal game. We had set a high standard for ourselves and just didn’t achieve it. We knew we had to grind out that Laois game and just not get relegated because we had only just come up and felt we hadn’t had a chance to prove what we were capable of,” Lara said.

“I think that was the most intense game I have played in my life. It was one of those games where you were just wondering what was happening. Luckily enough Neasa Dooley got that penalty and ended it with a win. Then there was a line drawn underneath that game.”

Kildare are still a Senior Championship side thanks to a last minute Neasa Dooley penalty. The report from the day read, “After Róisín Byrne’s last kick free hit the upright, Lara Gilbert won possession before being cleaned out as she moved away. Phillip Conway signalled for the penalty and Dooley was handed the ball.”

The rest as they say is history after the Athy woman found the net with the weight of a county on her shoulders. The win leaves Kildare to attack Division 1 and the Senior Championship under new manager Pat Sullivan in 2025.

Lara concluded, “It is an exciting year ahead. We have loads of girls interested in playing in 2025. It is good to see such a response, having fresh faces and new ideas coming in too. You can only hope for it to be successful and hope we’ll build well as a team and compete at the high levels that we are at.”