O'Byrne Cup 2012

1. Meath v Wexford 8.1.2012 Navan
2. Louth v Kilkenny 8.1.2012 Drogheda
3. Wicklow v College 8.1.2012 Aughrim
4. Longford v College 8.1.2012 Longford
5. Kildare v College 8.1.2012 Newbridge
6. Offaly v Westmeath 8.1.2012 Tullamore
7. Carlow v Dublin 8.1.2012 Carlow
8. Laois v College 8.1.2012 Portlaoise

9. 1 v 2 15.1.2012 Home Venue 1
10. 3 v 4 15.1.2012 Home Venue 3
11. 5 v 6 15.1.2012 Home Venue 5
12. 7 v 8 15.1.2012 Home Venue 7

13. 9 v 10 22.1.2012 Home Venue 9
14. 11 v 12 22.1.2012 Home Venue 11

FINAL: 13 v 14 29.1.2012 Home Venue 13

Division 2 National Football League 2012

Saturday 4th February : Kildare V Tyrone

Sunday 12th February : Monaghan v Kildare

Sunday 3rd March : Meath v Kildare

Sunday 11th March: Kildare v Derry

Sunday 18th March : Louth v Kildare

Sunday 25th March : Kildare v Westmeath

Sunday 8th April : Galway v Kildare

Three weeks until our first game of the year. I'll be glad to get back to talking about football rather than finances and GAA politics.

Hopefully we get a couple of wins and Dublin come to Newbridge. Even this early in the year that would be a cracker.

Team for the first game along these lines. Depending on availability of course. It's very hard when you go to write one down as the squad is so strong now. Take the full back line, one we struggled with for years. You have Peter Kelly, Mick Foley, Hugh McGrillen, Ollie Lyons, Mac and Ciaran Fitzpatrick, all can do a job. The Forwards are the same, loads of lads could start but we need to try and find another 3-4 points a game man.
Midfield is the area that still worries.
Spine needs to be strong but with younger players given a chance.
Spine of Connolly, Foley, O'Flaherty, Flynn, O'Flaherty should be strong enough. Forward line is very young but you need to try lads out. We won't see J.D until Feb and Dermot and Hugh Lynch are still recovering.
I'd love to see Feely given a shot but Paddy Dunne would do a fine job as well.

1. Connolly
2. Kelly
3. Foley
4.Lyons
5. Bolton
6.O'Flaherty
7.Conway
8.Flynn
9. Feely/Dunne
10. Leper
11. Eoghan O' Flaherty
12. Paudie
13. Eaton
14. Fogarty
15. Dowling

Subs
Dunne/Feely
Smith
Kelly
O'Connor
McGrillen
McCormack
Lyons
Fitzpatrick
Mulhall
Kavanagh
Mac
Donnelly
White.

1. Eyres
2. P.Kelly
3. Fitzpartick
4. Ollie Lyons
5. Conway
6. Chalky
7. Cribben
8. Feely/ Dunne
9. Conor Brophy
10. Reynolds
11. Eoghan Flats
12. Ciaran Kelly
13. Dowling
14. Fogarty
15. James Gately

Mac
Donnelly
Eaton
Dunne/Feely
David White
Mulhall
Connolly
Mulhall
Kinahan
Joe Kavanagh

Looking Forward to the start of the O'Byrne cup. After an interesting year of Kildare football where our stock has definitely grown, between Kildare and there narrow defeats and talk of top 4, The Juniors and there run to an All Ireland final and Athy winning the Kildare Championship and a decent run in Leinster for such a young team.

If we can get Peter Kelly and Lynch back for the Championship I'd give us a good chance of Leinster. I can't see Dermot returning to former heights but if he could give us 10-15 at the end of the game that would be a great bonus and inspiration. To win an All Ireland we'll need a bit of luck along the way with both decisions going our way and with injuries.

Hopefully Jimmers and Smyth can get a bit of form back after a tough 2011 for them, maybe a return to the forwards for JD and the likes of Fogarty & Dowling and perhaps a few of the Athy lads adding to the squad.

For O'Byrne opener I'd like to see something like

Connolly
Fitzpatrick Foley P. Kelly

G. Whyte m. O'Flaherty Lyons

Dunne/R. Kelly Brophy/Feely (if he decides to stick with GAA or Soccer)

P. O'Neill e. O'Flaherty C. Kelly

Smyth Fogarty Dowling

there a good chance that feely will gaa a full seson next year from what i heard

I heard that too fone, it would be great news

Has the first round of the league against Tyrone been confirmed for Croker or is it still talk?

I wonder what colour Jerseys Kildare will wear given that there is going to be a clash of colours with the home set.

Is it still going to be green??

I'd say they'll be wearing the new black jersey or else Tyrone as the "away team" will wear red.

Team was

Connolly ( I think)
Peter Kelly
Kieran Fitzgerald
Ollie Lyons
Chalky Whyte
Brian Flanagan
Eoin O'Flaherty
Paudie O'Neill
Daryl Flynn
Ronan Sweeney
Mikey Conway
Leper Callaghan
Fionn Dowling
Tomas O'Connor
Alan Smyth

Kavanagh came on for Leper at HT. Scanlon for Flanagan & Dessie Lawlor for Dowling about 10 minutes into the 2nd half

Anyone got a report on today's game?

Decent game for this time of year, DIT were not up to much. I don't think they scored from play in the whole match.

Kildare as a whole played in fits and starts. Some really good fast accurate football on a very heavy pitch mixed with some not so good.
To me the lads were just working their way back into it. Nothing to drastic, no real fireworks, just enough done to win and get another game next week.

Player wise, there were a few god performances. MOM for me was either Roli, Tomas or Paudie.
O'Connor continued off where he left last year and that's causing all types or problems for the DIT fullback. He won 90% of the ball sent into him and set up a lot of scores for others. He should also have scored a goal in the 2nd half with a great catch, then he turned his man and out paced him only to see the goalie save from an angle.

Roli, was good to, scored a goal and couple of points and kept the ball moving through midfield.
Paudie was his usual full blooded always running to receive the ball and scored a good goal after Tomas had scared the Keeper into fumbling the ball and his expected long range point.

Fullback line did well even though the Ref seemed very harsh on them and lenient on DIT, but it's better to get the rusty tackling out of the way now than in more important games.

Chalky very well in the first half but had a quiet 2nd and Smith seems to need a little confidence.
Jimmers scored to excellent points when he came on which was good to see.

I thought if Geezer wanted to continue with the quarterback in the half backs Conway would be more suited than Flats the younger as his passing seems more accurate and Eoghan is more of a scoring threat.

Overall, as I said a good solid start, we are already in a better position than last year as Peter Kelly had at this time done his knee and was out for the year and Mikey Conway was also out.

Biffos who had a good win today are up next. Football in back.