Four trophies and a wedding; Kildare captain Grace Clifford reflects on adding another title to her recent collection

Four trophies and a wedding? No it’s not a 2024 spin-off of the Hugh Grant rom-com of the mid-90s, it is Kildare captain Grace Clifford’s last 18 months summed up. The knot is yet to be tied, but the trophies are in the bag as the Eadestown legend lifted the Division 2 league title in Croke Park on Sunday after defeating Tyrone.

“In a final anything can happen, we saw that last year against Clare. It still felt like heart in the mouth stuff right until the end. Even though we were a few (three) points up,” Clifford said.

Kildare’s 2-9 to 0-12 win over Tyrone secured their status as champions, but The Lilies were already promoted to Division 1 after a stellar league campaign. In stark contrast to 12 months ago in the Division 3 final with Clare, when everything was on the line.

Nevertheless, in both cases Kildare emerged victorious and secured back-to-back promotions and Division 1 football for 2025.

“It is surreal. It was totally different going into this game compared to last year, but we still wanted to win the cup. In one of the training sessions after we got promoted we were saying how great it was that we were up. Fiona Troute then goes ‘lads we still want to win the cup don’t we’ and we kept referring to that moment from then on. That is the way this group is in every game we play,” Clifford added.

A huge story from the day was 18 year-old Niamh Farrelly, who was subbed on after just 25 minutes and made an immediate impact to set-up a crucial Kildare goal for Neasa Dooley.

The young Kill player said post-match, “I have been dreaming of this since I was a kid and to do it at 18, in my first year up from minor, I was absolutely delighted to get that opportunity.”