"You don’t see things like that too often and it’s very special"- O'Neill's follows in legendary clubmate's steps

The last time a Kildare side won an All-Ireland title in the men’s game there was a Carbury custodian minding the goals for the Lilywhites, and on Sunday Aaron O’Neill managed to repeat that little point of note by helping Kildare to the first ever All-Ireland U20 Championship title.

Ollie Crinnigan was the man between the posts when Kildare won the U21 Football Championship in 1965, and he went on to be regarded as perhaps the county’s greatest ever goalkeeper. O’Neill has a long way to go before he can establish himself in company as grand as Crinnigan’s, but he made a good start when starring for the Lilywhites in their win over Mayo.

“It’s special. You don’t see things like that too often and it’s very special,” O’Neill said of the fact that Carbury have now had two All-Ireland winning goalkeepers.

“There was talk around the club and around the village during the week saying the last time an All-Ireland was won that there was a Carbury goalkeeper. You kind of just block everything out and just focus on the game, but when it’s all over and done with and you think of those things. Those things really mean something.”

It could have been very different for Kildare had it not been for a fine save that O’Neill pulled off on Mayo’s Ross Egan five minutes before the end, helping Kildare keep a cushion that Mayo could never fully claw back. Aside from his shot-stopping and general calmness under high balls, O’Neill was brilliant off the tee from his kickouts.

“That’s what goalkeepers are there for,” he said.

“It’s not just shot-stopping any more. We’re almost like a quarterback now in American Football – kickouts are a part of the game.

“That’s just what we’re there for as well,” he remarked on the save that denied Egan.

“We’re down there on the training ground two or three nights a week working on stuff like that, working on defensive setup and it all just came to fruition there today.”

O’Neill, a member of the Kildare senior panel, wouldn’t have been eligible to play in the U20 grade if he had featured for the seniors in the championship. He was involved in Cian O’Neill’s panels as the backup to Mark Donnellan until Declan Campbell took his place on the bench last Saturday evening in Killarney, and he admits that there is a bit of relief that Donnellan never got injured and he wasn’t called upon.

“If I had been called upon with the seniors I guess I would have to do it, but I must say that I am glad from a selfish point of view, but sometimes you have to look at it from a selfish point of