Football

IT'S ALL WHITE FOR RYAN

Kieran McGeeney leaves particularly big boots to fill, but if that is a problem for Jason Ryan in Kildare then it has not been apparent so far.

Five games in to life as 'Geezer's' successor have yielded five wins for Ryan, the latest coming in newbridge yesterday where Kildare secured back-to-back O'Byrne Cup titles.

Few home fans in the 5,000-orso crowd that braved a bitingly cold afternoon in newbridge lack perspective. After overcoming Dublin in an epic final last year, only to lose to the same side by 16 points in the Championship, there were certainly no bonfires being lit around the county last night.

Still, the competition has been quite productive from Ryan's perspective after stepping up from the role of selector to take McGeeney's management position.

The big find of the tournament has been full-forward Darroch Mulhall, the 22-year old full-forward that McGeeney appeared to overlook. A former Kildare junior, the athy man is enigmatic and exciting to watch and kicked two beautiful points in the second half yesterday, one off either boot. He hit four points in all, enough to make him top scorer and to seal a record 11th title for Kildare. Nnext week they will open their allianz League Division One account against Mayo in newbridge and many players may be rewarded for January form.

Mulhall will surely play some part while Mick O'Grady, Kevin Murnaghan and James Gately have done their chances no harm. afterwards, niall Kelly, eamonn Callaghan and Keith Cribbin were among a group who trained separately because of injuries and they won't be ready to face Mayo. There's still no word on if, or when, talismanic forward John Doyle will be back either.

"i'd say he's at home baby-sitting today," said Ryan when asked of the allenwood man's whereabouts.

"He just needs a little bit of time. i suppose he will make his own decision in time. Who am i to tell Johnny Doyle what to do or what not to do?

"I've said it before and i'll say it again, the man is a legend in Kildare, he's a legend in Gaelic football in Ireland. If he's available to play, whenever he is, we'll be delighted to see him. The door is open." as for the victory itself, ryan said it was pleasing but admitted they still have lots to work on ahead of their Division One campaign.

"Our tackle count was up on last week, the amount of balls we turned over was up on last week, but unfortunately the amount of ball that we gave away was up as well, so it gives us something to work on," said the former Wexford manager.

Meath shared Kildare's perfect record approaching the final and, like the Lilies, shot four goals against a Dublin university in the semi-finals. But they weren't able to dominate the hosts like they did DCU last week and Wicklow the previous Sunday.

They did have five goal chances and Stephen Bray and eamonn Wallace might have been better off going for the net instead of taking points.

But they were also lucky not to concede more to a Kildare side that opened up after half-time and could have streaked further clear. As it was, Kildare held a 1-4 to 0-6 half-time advantage with both sides guilty of silly errors and wasteful play at times. The conditions were difficult, windy and chilly, but Kildare looked lively when it counted most in the run-in.

Meath didn't score a point from

play in the second-half with Mickey newman converting all three of their scores from frees.

The royals have gotten plenty from the competition too, however, with lots of new faces pushing hard for League inclusion.

Boss Mick O'Dowd made eight changes from the DCU game for yesterday's tie so Galway at home on Sunday in Division Two may have been foremost in his thoughts.

"it's hard to get the flow from one week to the next if you are being true to your word and giving fellas chances, so that's the way i'd look at it," said O'Dowd.

"There were a lot of positives in the game and i'm sure, when we look at the game we'll see that, but we're disappointed to lose at the same time. We came down to win it."

MATCH STATS

Kildare: M Donnellan; H McGrillen,

M Foley, M O'Grady; K Murnaghan,

E Bolton, P Cribbin (0-2); T Moolick (1-0),

G Whyte; S Hurley (0-1), E O'Flaherty,

C McNally (0-1); P Brophy (0-1), D Mulhall (0-4, 0-2 frees), P Fogarty (0-1).

Subs: O Lyons for McGrillen (50), J Gately for McNally (57), F Dowling for Mulhall (67),

F Conway for O'Flaherty (72).

Yellow card: Whyte (48).

Meath: C McHugh; D Keogan, M Burke,

C Young; P Gilsenan, E Harrington,

D Dalton; C Gillespie, A Tormey;

P McKeever, D McDonagh, D Larkin (0-1);

E Wallace (0-2), S Bray (0-2), M Newman (0-4, 0-3 frees, 0-1 45).

Subs: K Reilly for Gillespie (20), G Reilly for McKeever (45), D Carroll for McDonagh (45), D Bray for Wallace (45), S O'Rourke for Young (52)

Black card: Tormey (59), replaced by C O'Sullivan.

Referee: F Kelly (Longford).