Naas' Ross and Eoin seeking more silverware in two hurling Championships

The Naas bandwagon just keeps rolling along. Never in the history of the club from the county town enjoyed such success as they are at present, both football and hurling, and this weekend they will be hoping to bring more silverware to their Sallins

Road headquarters as their seniors will be attempting to make it five senior hurling titles in a row while their second string will be lining up attempting to win the Senior B title.

Despite all the recent success Naas centre back Ross Kelly is putting all that on the back burner, for now at least. “We set out at the start of the year to get to a county final, nothing more, nothing less; anything we have achieved over the last number of years is over and done with for now; our sole focus is on the county final and Coill Dubh and we know we are in for one hell of a tough battle but we have prepared well and will do more over the next week or so but are fully aware of what we face and the challenge we are about come up against.”

Naas do have a few injury concerns as we saw against Maynooth in the semi-final with Rian Boran and Charlie Sheridan missing out and they look like they won't make it back in time, said Ross, adding, Cathal Dowling only got ten minutes while we also have some long term injuries with Richie Hogan, Killian Harrington, Kieron Maher but apart from that training is going well and we are really looking forward to Sunday.

Ross admits that the semi-final was a tough game against Maynooth, “we were fortunate to get a couple of scores near the end that got us over the line but, yes, a very tough game as we expected.”

The Naas centre back was very impressed looking at Coill Dubh in the semi.

“They were very impressive; they have some top class hurlers and will put us under a lot of pressure; they way they dug that win out; the scores they got and we are expecting a huge challenge.”

Naas may not have as many dual players as Coill Dubh but have two vital players in James Burke and Brian Byrne, along with Daire Guerin, while the Boran's play their football, along with Harry Carroll, with Eadestown but Ross feels they have managed, as they always do, training very well.

Meanwhile Eoin O'Hehir captain of the Naas Senior B side who take on Leixlip at the weekend, says “Senior B is good but obviously you would like to be playing on the 1st team but the standard in the club is very strong at the minute but the two teams train together which leads to intensive training as we (Bs) are pushing all the time to make progress to the 'A' side.”

The fact that Leixlip, if they were to win, will see them return to the senior ranks, is that an added incentive that Naas lack?

“It is indeed a great incentive for them as they want to be back at the top level but at the same time our side certainly do not lack ambition to progress.”

And a final word from Ross Kelly as he looks forward to another senior decider.

“We are ready, we know the task ahead of us; we have only one thing our minds, Coill Dubh; we are proud to wear the Naas jersey and hopefully we can get over the line but it will be difficult, we are fully aware of that, but we looking forward to it.”