The Kildare Senior Championship has spent the 2020s adorned in either blue or red but it was the re-ascension of the county’s most successful club that returned green to the ears of the Dermot Bourke Cup. Sarsfields beat Maynooth to return to the top of the mountain and bridge a seven-year gap between the club’s Joe Mallon Motors SFC successes, much like they did in 2012.
The Sash last lifted the title in the year fires raged in Notre-Dame, the year astronomers captured the first image of a black hole and months before anyone knew the phrase Covid-19. Sarsfields have once again risen above the rest with Mayo-native Vinnie Walsh at the helm in the same year his county exorcised their long-held demons.
17. 1 November 2026; Maynooth supporter Tiernan O'Toole, aged a year and a half, inspects the pitch at half-time during the Kildare County Senior Club Football Championship final match between Maynooth and Sarsfields Championship at Cedral St Conleth's Park in Newbridge, Kildare. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Maynooth supporter Tiernan O'Toole, aged a year and a half, inspects the pitch at half-time | SPORTSFILE
18. 1 November 2026; Niall 'Nuxer' Buckley, former Sarsfields and Kildare footballer, as his 2001 Kildare SFC winning side were introduced to the crowd at halftime, during the Kildare County Senior Club Football Championship final match between Maynooth and Sarsfields Championship at Cedral St Conleth's Park in Newbridge, Kildare. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Niall 'Nuxer' Buckley, former Sarsfields and Kildare footballer, as his 2001 Kildare SFC winning side were introduced to the crowd at halftime, during the Kildare County Senior Club Football Championship final match between Maynooth and Sarsfields | SPORTSFILE
19. 1 November 2026; Niall 'Nuxer' Buckley, former Sarsfields and Kildare footballer, as his 2001 Kildare SFC winning side were introduced to the crowd at halftime, during the Kildare County Senior Club Football Championship final match between Maynooth and Sarsfields Championship at Cedral St Conleth's Park in Newbridge, Kildare. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Niall 'Nuxer' Buckley, former Sarsfields and Kildare footballer, as his 2001 Kildare SFC winning side were introduced to the crowd at halftime | SPORTSFILE
20. 1 November 2026; Shea Ryan of Sarsfields in action against Sean Mahon of Maynooth during the Kildare County Senior Club Football Championship final match between Maynooth and Sarsfields Championship at Cedral St Conleth's Park in Newbridge, Kildare. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Shea Ryan of Sarsfields in action against Sean Mahon of Maynooth during the Kildare County Senior Club Football Championship final match between Maynooth and Sarsfields | SPORTSFILE