Kildare 1-10 Meath 1-8:USUALLY THE O'Byrne Cup is a mostly futile exercise in trying to find a few tell-tale signs for the season ahead while at the same time trying not to read too deeply into them. Every so often you get a game like this, a veritable tour de force for the second weekend in January which somehow defied the truly foul conditions.
Kildare and Meath don't like losing to each other at the best of times, and even if it was only an O'Byrne Cup semi-final place at stake, the commitment from both teams never let up.
In the end, Kildare fought their way back from a six-point deficit in the first half to earn the two-point win, a result partly explained by the conditions.
In the opening half, Meath had the driving rain and lashing wind at their backs, helping them to go 1-3 ahead after 20 minutes - and before Kildare had registered anything.
For the second half, Meath had that rain and wind in their faces, and so Kildare out-scored them 1-5 to 0-2. The key to Kildare's win then was probably the five points they landed in the run-up to half-time.
Meath came to Newbridge on the back of a 13-point win over Westmeath last Sunday, and picked up where they left off. Even accounting for the wind, they looked impressive - with Joe Sheridan tearing into Kildare from the start.
Within two minutes Sheridan had a goal, latching on to a super pass from Mark Ward to produce an even better finish. Two points quickly followed, but when two goal chances then went astray, there were signs Meath's early advantage wouldn't hold.
"That was probably it," said manager Eamonn O'Brien. "We'd be a little disappointed alright because you want to win every game you go out to play. Having said that, Kildare probably did deserve it, on the balance of play.
"They dug out the result there in the second half, and got a couple of important scores in the first half as well, because I don't think we went in far enough ahead as we should have been, having played with a very strong wind."
Instead, Meath were just 1-6 to 0-5 up at half-time, and truth is that should have been more. When Kildare finally got on the scoresheet after 20 minutes with a point from Ronan Sweeney it was as if things suddenly evened out, and all Meath could add from there until the break were three frees from Cian Ward.
Throughout the second half, and again accounting for the wind, Kildare looked the marginally better team - in terms of both fitness, and attitude. Their goal came nine minutes after the restart when Karl Ennis sent a neat ball across to the unmarked Willie Heffernan, who coolly converted. The young forward later added a point and has clearly given manager Kieran McGeeney another option up front.
"Well they're in better shape this time of year than they were this time last year," said McGeeney. "That comes down, duly, to the individual training programmes. We gave a lot away in the first quarter, but with that sort of breeze it was always going to be hard. But Declan Brennan still did well, and Michael Kenny and Hugh McGrillen had excellent games in the corner. We still have a lot of options there.
"I'd still be a little disappointed that we're not getting enough scores on the board. We'd four or five easy chances at least that we didn't take, and if that's the case in bigger and better games you'll always struggle."
Kildare definitely closed out the better team, limiting Meath to two second-half points.
Having drawn level on 59 minutes, they then eased home with a free from Mark O'Sullivan and a late score from Ken Donnelly (the replacement for Daryl Flynn, who was yellow carded on 24 minutes).
Meath also lost one player in the end, David Bray, for an awkward tackle of Kildare wing back Michael Conway - another of McGeeney's emerging talents.
"Well we tried him there against Wicklow last year," he said, "and not many people remember that. He tackles well, and as the games go on we'll see. But he is one of the best tacklers on the field. And it's a harder working position than he's been used to."
Kildare will have home advantage again for next Sunday's semi-final with DCU - not that McGeeney intends on easy up on the hard training: "Well we'd be training hard anyway, so it doesn't make much difference.
"It's just about trying to fit everything into these four weeks, to give players a chance."
KILDARE: S McCormack; H McGrillan, D Brennan, M Kenny; M Scanlon, M Foley, M Conway (0-2); D Flynn, R Kelly; E O'Toole, R Sweeney (0-2), J Kavanagh (0-1); M Hartnett, W Heffernan (1-1), M O'Sullivan (0-3, two frees). Subs: K Ennis for O'Toole (17 mins), K O'Neill for Kelly (54 mins, inj). Yellow cards: D Flynn (24 mins, K Donnelly, 0-1).
MEATH: P O'Rourke; S McAnarney, A Collins, E Harrington; S McKenna, B Meade, T Skelly; M Ward, D Sheridan; D Bray (0-1), E Reilly (0-2), G Reilly; J Queney, J Sheridan (1-1), C Ward (0-4, frees). Subs: P Byrne for Queney, S Kenny for G Reilly (both half time), D Reynolds for McAnarney (65 mins, inj). Yellow cards: D Bray (67 mins, Tom Walsh).
Referee: G McCormack (Dublin).
With victories yesterday for Kildare, Wicklow and Louth - as well as DCU's 0-11 to 0-5 victory over DIT - the semi-finals of the O'Byrne Cup next weekend will witness Wicklow play Louth and Kildare take on DCU.
