Previews: Moving day for plenty of teams in Kildare Senior Football Championship group stage

Group A

Maynooth v Naas, St Conleth’s Park, Saturday 3.45pm

These two sides might have expected better performances in the opening round, but at least Naas come into this game with a win under their belts and certain degree of confidence.

Maynooth were well below their best against St Laurence’s in the first group game, losing by 12 points and never looking like a cohesive unit going forward. They may have been suffering slightly from the hangover of winning the Division 2 league title just a week previous, but they would have surely targeted what looked like a winnable game against their south Kildare opponents on day one. Karl Ennis’ men have at least had two weeks to shake off that disappointment, and they will be hoping that their inventive attack can click against Naas on Saturday.

The Naas defence will not afford them too many openings however. Their half-back line of Eoghan Bateman, Eoin Doyle and Brian Byrne is among the strongest in the county, while Brian Stynes impressed on his championship debut in the narrow win over Castledermot last time out. They were expected to beat the men from the southern border of Kildare more comprehensively, but Damien Hendy’s side showed that they are a solid and threatening team not to be taken lightly when dispatching St Laurence’s last weekend.

Naas should have too much running power from the half-back line onwards, and while Maynooth might well improve, Declan McCabe’s side will be confident of wrestling control of Group A with a win on Saturday.

Verdict: Naas

Group B

Carbury v Leixlip, Manguard Plus CEO Hawkfield, 3.45pm

Neither of these teams did themselves any justice on the opening weekend, and whoever loses this tie looks destined to be facing into a relegation dogfight.

Carbury were expected to at least run Athy close in the first group game, but they completely misfired and ended up shipping an uncharacteristically heavy 10-point defeat. They were largely wiped out in midfield on that occasion, while in defence they couldn’t cope with the class of Niall Kelly and the runs from deep of David Hyland. Up front, they just couldn’t manage to get Eoghan O’Flaherty into the game and that usually spells bad trouble for Carbury.

Leixlip’s defence is not at the level of Athy’s however, and the likes of O’Flaherty and Jack Cully should have a little more joy on Saturday.

Leixlip endured a tough outing against Round Towers in the first round, with two late goals ultimately putting a little gloss on the scoreline for them. While Tommy Moolick is likely to dominate the middle, he needs the forward line to step up on front of him and the defence to be watertight if they are to keep their powder dry in Group B.

Verdict: Carbury

Group D

Celbridge v Confey, St Conleth’s Park, 2pm

Celbridge will not have taken too much from a facile win over Eadestown in which they barely had to move out of second gear.

26 points was the winning margin for a Celbridge side who would have taken very little from their encounter in Clane, though it might at least have some of the forwards buzzing ahead of greater challenges. David Hughes plundered 2-6 in that game, with all but one point coming from play, while David Byrne chipped in with five points from play.

Their strong start doesn’t bode well for a Confey side who were extremely poor against Sarsfields in their own group opener. Quite what went wrong for Confey on that occasion is anyone’s guess, but they looked to be in a certain sense of shock and awe as the Sash ripped through them from the very early stages of the game.

For a side that were champions of the Division 1 league two years ago and competed well in the top tier once again this year, it was an absolute outlier of a result. They aren’t as bad a team as the 18-point losing margin suggests, but confidence will have been on the floor afterwards.

They are unlikely to beat Celbridge on Saturday, but they should at least be hoping to be a lot more competitive than they were against Sarsfields.

A win for Celbridge would set things up nicely for the final round of the group as last year’s beaten finalists would play Sarsfields to decide who gets top spot, while Eadestown and Confey would scrap it out to avoid finishing bottom of the group.

Verdict: Celbridge