Kildare SFC Final

NAAS 0-14 SARSFIELDS 0-12

By Ger McNally at St Conleth's Park

Naas had to endure a nail-biting finale when Sarsfields threw everything at them before eventually sealing their first Kildare SFC title since 1990 at St Conleths Park today.

The result sparked huge celebrations among the players and supporters and the pitch in Newbridge turned into a sea of blue and white within seconds of the final whistle. Captain Eamonn Callaghan, just days before his 39thbirthday, lifted the Dermot Bourke Cup much to their delight and the win will be cherished in the weeks and years to come.

That 1990 final win was Naas’ first final appearance since 1932 and although they returned to the final 12 months later they relinquished their crow and they've endured a long wait wait since.

After waiting over 30 years to make it back to the showpiece final in Kildare, they had to wait an extra ten minutes as the start was delayed for ten minutes due to the size of the crowd but once the ball was thrown in, they set about the task at hand in fine style.

Their youth and athleticism around the middle third was too much for Sarsfields to handle in the opening stages and Naas raced into an extremely impressive 0-8 to 0-1 lead by the 22 minutes.

Pre-match favourites Sarsfields were all at sea in those opening exchanges but gradually they found their feet in the latter part of the half and they scored the last four points before the break to cut the Naas lead back to 0-8 to 0-5 by half time.

Towering midfielder Tadhg Hoey added to their run of scores early in the second but overall the third quarter belonged to Naas and they led by 0-12 to 0-7 at the water break. They went 0-13 to 0-8 ahead but just when it appeared as they were gearing up for the final stretch, their wheels began to fall off. Inspirational defender Eoin Doyle went off injured and then just a minute later Sean Cullen was shown a black card, leaving Naas with 14 men for the last ten minutes of normal time.

Hoey kicked two brilliant points to leave three in with five minutes to go. After a Darragh Ryan point, Sarsfields had the ball in the net but much to their disgust their effort was ruled out after the referee brought back play for an earlier foul. Barry Coffey converted that free to leave just a point between the side but despite the Sarsfields pressure in the three minutes of injury time it was Naas who sealed the win with a Paul McDermott point.

Scorers for Naas: D Kirwan 0-4, E Callaghan 0-2 (1f), S Cullen 0-2, D Hanafin 0-1, B Kane 0-1, T Browne 0-1, A Beirne 0-1, Paddy McDermott 0-1 Paul McDermott 0-1.

Scorers for Sarsfields: B McCormack 0-3 (1’45), T Hoey 0-3 (0-1 mark), D Ryan 0-3, B Coffey 0-2 (0-1 mark, free), K Hartley 0-1.

NAAS: Jack Rodgers; Brian Kane, Paul Sullivan, Conor McCarthy; Tom Browne, Brian Byrne, Paddy McDermott; Eoin Doyle, Jack Cleary; Dermot Hanafin, Eamonn Callaghan, Alex Beirne; Darragh Kirwan, James Burke, Sean Cullen.

Subs: Colm Joyce for Hanafin, 47; Cathal Daly for Doyle, 48; Paul McDermott for Kane, 54; Brian Stynes for Beirne, 60+3.

SARSFIELDS: John Melia; Tom Aspell, Shea Ryan, Colm Hartnett; Darragh Ryan, Con Kavanagh, Ciaran Aspell; Ben McCormack, Tadhg Hoey; Cian Costigan, Barry Coffety, Conor Hartley; Dan Nea, Shane Doyle, Alan Smith.

Subs: David Shalvey for Alan Smith, h/t: Karl Hartley for Costigan, 36; Cian Byrne for Ciaran McInerney-Aspell, 38; Gary White for C Hartley, 43; Sean Campbell for Hartnett, 45.

REFEREE: Billy O'Connell.