Kildare ladies come up short against All-Ireland champions Kerry

Kerry 2-10

Kildare 0-7

All-Ireland champions, Kerry, proved too strong for Kildare in Round 3 of the Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 1, Round 3 game, played at Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney on Sunday.

Kildare certainly gave it their all but an early goal for the home side set the trend and Kildare never really recovered from that set-back.

It was an early masterclass from Kerry that had them into and early five point lead, points from Siofra O’Shea and Mary O’Connell edged Kerry ahead early on despite Kildare’s spirited efforts that saw shots from Neasa Dooley and Roisín Byrne drift agonisingly wide.

Kerry again broke forward off a broken Kildare attack, Niamh Carmody gathering possession on the twenty yard line she spotted Anna Galvin loose inside. Chipping over the top it looked like Galvin was certain to net, except for the intervention of Neasa Dooley who made up the ground to prevent Galvin from profiting. Unable to gather the rebound from her defensive efforts, Danielle O’Leary was waiting to gather. In space she send the ball across the face of goal and soon Mary Hulgraine was collecting the ball from the back of her net.

Looking to spark life back into the Kildare effort Neasa Dooley and Lara Curran chipped over points to leave O’Leary’s goal the difference between the sides at the break.

The pick of the latter was a point from Dooley. Have drawn breath from the crowd with her lofty effort off the left on twenty minutes she drew even more awe with her breathtaking effort from the right.

Second Half
Retaking to the field Kildare needed to get to the off first to ensure that they kept the momentum going. With O’Shea standing over a free inside the opening sixty seconds, the experienced full forward made no mistake with the strike before tagging on one from play.

Dooley exchanged further points with O’Shea before Kerry looked to take life out of the tie with 22 minutes remaining.
A poor Kildare kick-out, allowed O’Leary to clean up and bear down on goal. A clear shot on an empty net, O’Leary unleashed her effort but coming from the left Sargent got a foot to the ball pushing it over the end line.

The resulting 45 allowed O’Leary to float the ball into the heart of the Kildare defence where the waiting O’Shea rose highest. Turning to net, Kerry were eight points clear.

An exchange of points from O’Leary and Roisín Byrne maintained this deficit for Kildare into the final quarter.

Further points from O’Leary and Rachel Dwyer took Kerry ten clear before again Dooley again struck a brace for the travelling Kildare side. A final point from O’Shea rounded off matters as Kildare slumped to defeat in a performance that will give them more lessons to learn at the top flight.

Scorers: Kerry: Siofra O’Shea 1-5 (3f); Danielle O’Leary 1-3; Mary O’Connell 0-1; Rachel Dwyer 0-1.

Kildare: Neasa Dooley 0-5; Lara Curran 0-1; Roisin Byrne 0-1 (1f).

KERRY: Mary Ellen Bolger; Ellis Lynch, Deirdre Kearney, Roisin Rahilly; Kayleigh Cronin, Caoimhe Evans, Ciara McCarthy; Aoife Dillane, Mary O’Connell; Leah Boyle, Niamh Carmody, Anna Galvin; Jadyn Lucey, Siofra O’Shea, Danielle O’Leary. Subs: Niamh Ni Chonchuir for Boyle, 28; Rachel Dwyer for Galvin, 40; Julia Curtin for O’Leary, 55; Niamh Broderick for Carmody, 57; Niamh Quinn for Evans, 57.

KILDARE: Mary Hulgraine; Ruth Sargent, Lauren Murtagh, Emma Wheeler; Mia Doherty, Laoise Lenehan, Molly Aspell; Claire Sullivan, Lara Curran; Ciara Moran, Gillian Wheeler, Neasa Dooley; Lisa Shaw, Leah McGovern, Roisin Byrne. Subs: Ellen Dowling for McGovern, 39; Siofra Galvin for Curran, 44; Leah Doran for Shaw, 44; Erin Brereton Foley for Wheeler, 50; Zoe Brierty for Sullivan, 58.

AFTER MATCH REACTION
Seven days on from the highs of claiming a historic victory over Leinster rivals Dublin, Kildare travelled to Killarney full of confidence where they fell to a physical Kerry outfit. Looking back over the tie, manager Pat Sullivan was honest in his reflection of his sides performance.

“Overall we’d be disappointed on certain things we did wrong ourselves, the score line doesn’t represent the game that played out in front of us.”

The manager felt the physical difference between the sides was a major factor.

We’d be disappointed in some of the things we did wrong ourselves’ noted Sullivan, adding “but Kerry are going for four league finals in a row; we learned a lot today from where we are physically and in an S&C perspective.”

With the swift move through the divisions over the past two seasons Kildare have had to make up a lot of ground with this side of their game and this is something Sullivan needs to put the finishing touches too as his side now face a host of sides in Division 1 with a new level of physicality.

“From today we knew there is little tweaks we need to make to avoid that physicality, and move the ball a little faster through the middle third.”

Despite this Sullivan is looking optimistically to the future where he looks to get Kildare ready to go toe to toe with the best.
“We’ll learn from today and we’ll tweak as we go to make sure we can adapt to what we have and cut our cloth to fit until we are strong enough to go toe to toe with the likes of Kerry’.