BEFORE 2018, Naas GAA club were heading for their 20th year without a senior county championship win in any of the four codes.
The feeling was that they were punching below their weight. They were a big club in a commuter town, but without any major product to show for it. Their senior camogie team ignited the spark when they won the 2018 county championship.
The following year, the hurlers followed their example and launched a period of dominance that has yielded a six-in-a-row success. In 2021, the Naas footballers caught the same bug. Two weeks ago, they won their fourth Kildare senior title on the bounce after Darragh Kirwan kicked a last-minute point against Celbridge.
That leads us to this weekend and their Leinster quarter-final clash with Dublin’s first-time champions Cuala. The Naas hurlers and camogie team are out in provincial action next weekend as the Kildare side aims to bring their conquering power to the Leinster competitions.
But the days weren’t always this fruitful in Naas.
“I grew up in Naas where we never won an adult title.” Club PRO Sinéad Keogh says. “So, to think that the children in Naas are watching this today, I just hope they all realise how long we’ve waited for this.
“Yes, it’s amazing now and it’s come at such a brilliant time but this has come from such hard work and effort by so many people over so many years.
“We had so many unlucky defeats in semi-finals and finals, in all codes, for so many years. This is just real reward for such a long wait.”
Keogh grew up playing camogie for Naas, and has been part of the senior team’s coaching unit for the last few seasons. She points to the work that was invested at underage level some 15-20 years ago. And these are the returns: sustained success in three of the four codes. For it to happen all at the same time is something they could never have anticipated.
And even though Naas is a town that sees plenty of new blood coming in all the time, the majority of their adult players are home produced. That’s a point of pride for the club which was originally situated on the Dublin road, but relocated to the Sallins Road 20 years ago.
At present, Naas boasts a membership of about 2,300. That brings its challenges however as their facilities are stretched in trying to cater to that number. They have four pitches at the moment, but would need as many as 12 to accommodate all their teams.
“A lot of our juvenile teams don’t get to train in our club,” says Keogh. “They train on local pitches or rent all weather pitches. All that comes at a huge cost so that’s a real difficulty. But we’re working very hard and just in the last week, we’ve been awarded funds for the Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Grant, so all that funding will be put towards the development of more playing facilities.”
That’s a happy headache of course. And it’s not the only one they have currently as they are also trying to manage the demands of dual players. Brian Byrne and James Burke play for both the hurlers and footballers while some of their camogie players are in a similar position.
“We have four of our senior camogie team who play football with Eadestown who are in the Leinster final this weekend. It’s a huge workload on those players and on all the clubs to make sure the players aren’t burnt out. We have good dual player policies in the club and it has worked well at juvenile level.”
Along with all that, a fixture clash looms for Naas. On Sunday, 17 November, the Naas hurlers will compete in the Leinster senior quarter-final against St Martin’s of Wexford. Their camogie team is also in action that day, as they take on Laois champions St Brigid’s in the provincial intermediate final.
It’s unfortunate for all members of the Naas community who would prefer to attend both games. But there are a few families who have been particularly affected by the issue.
“There’s three or four families who are directly hit with a daughter and son on both teams,” Keogh explains. “One of our camogie mentors has a son playing hurling and a daughter playing camogie on the same day. That has been really hard for a few families.
“And club people, I want to see the hurling match as well. It’s just unfortunate that we’re with different associations. Hopefully that’s a change that will come when the associations amalgamate.”
But before they can start thinking about that conundrum, the people of Naas must turn their attention to the footballers this weekend. They will be hosting Cuala at the newly revamped St Conleth’s Park in Newbridge in the hope of maintaining their course in the Leinster championship.
Naas commit everyone forward before Shane Walsh goes on the charge to seal the Leinster SFC Final for Kilmacud Crokes!
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Naas have reached two of the last three Leinster finals, losing to Kilmacud Crokes on both occasions. The first meeting in 2021 ended in a seven-point defeat for the Kildare kingpins. But in last year’s collision in Croke Park, Naas kept a closer watch on Crokes and were just two points behind heading into injury time. A brilliant Shane Walsh goal after a blistering run from deep was the final flourish that eased them to a Leinster three-in-a-row. They met in the 2022 Leinster quarter-final as well, where Crokes were 3-14 to 0-14 victors.
The Stillorgan side are not in their way this time, but Naas are faced with Dublin opposition again. It’s a team that has beaten a side that they have fallen short against three times.
Emerging from their own county is a difficult enough task as Celbridge ran them to just one point in the last two county finals. Naas needed extra-time to shake of Athy in the semi-final. And now that a new competition commences, it doesn’t get any easier for the Kildare champions this weekend.
“Naas have come up against Kilmacud Crokes on a number of occasions, and come out the hard side of that team so it’ll be really interesting,” says Keogh. “Cuala are obviously an excellent outfit so we’re looking forward to a fantastic game on Saturday. Having the game under lights in Newbridge is really exciting.”
Defeating Cuala this weekend will ensure Naas will maintain their interest across all three Leinster championships. Of course, that will tempt them to consider the prospect of a trio of provincial titles.
“You nearly don’t want to even think about it but it’s incredible to think we’re at that stage,” says Keogh.
“We had so many unlucky defeats in semi-finals and finals, in all codes, for so many years. This is just real reward for such a long wait. It’s really exciting to think that we have three teams in Leinster championship action. Please God, the hurlers and footballers can make it to a Leinster final too.”
Kk forwards were fantastic some of their movement was mesmerising … After saying that Offaly were like a junior b team !!!
That’s one for the people saying Mark Kelly ‘couldn’t do it at the highest level’
Kelly will only get better and better
I totally agree that Kelly is good enough but in fairness he was a good bit quiet tonight.Ino he got 2goals but he only got one touch in the first half,completely non existent(but in fairness colin and TJ were doing all the business!) Second half was better,got himself into better positions and got two goals.Other then that im sure he w
ould be disappointed by the way he played
In the first half nothing went right for him but once he got some room and made some runs he got his goals. I agree he will only get better but how much better??
Mark Kelly is quality! Attacks the goals every chance he gets. (Coming from a Galway man)
Im guessing a run out against this Offaly team isn’t going to be a good gauge. There is under 16s in Kilkenny, Cork and Tipp that would do well against them.
The Offaly goalkeeper should have got man of the match. It should have been a lot worse for them.
Tremendous goalkeeper. Brave, the score would have been 3 or 4 goals higher but for him
Ahem… That was an offaly big score
*cough*
Birr-illant….!
“Oh feck” – All of Galway
Sad to see a county that won an All Ireland as recently as 98 and produced some great teams fallen so far.
You swear they ran out of ash trees and only borrowed some hurleys on the day of the match. Really sad to see and that coming from a Corkman. Offaly have always been a good hurling county, producing some great players over the years. This was actually hard to watch.
Never seen the game but fat arses and fat legs poor ould offaly
Sad site to see.depressing not as a KK fan but as a hurling fan in general.One thing Offaly HAVE to notice is that it could have so easily been much more.If the Offaly goalkeeper wasn’t sharp another 3-4goals could(should on a KK point of view) have going in and the offaly goal was pretty embarrassing for the KK backs and goalkeeper.It was just a depressing game to be at for both sides,the score at half time would win a KK about 90% of their matches.Nit really the best match for Sky to start off on!Going to be some summer
I hope there weren’t many people watching for Offalys sake!
Oh wait…..
Ahem… That was an offaly big score
*cough*
What were the GAA thinking making that the debut game for sky viewers. It just made hurling look very very boring to 1st time viewers. After 20-25 mins that game was well over and there was no atmosphere, no pace to the game and no excitement of any kind, unless you include the slow goal build ups. Any Munster game would have been ideal for a debut or 2 of the Leinster super powers going at it, but that game was a joke of a debut. Made hurling look slow and boring. At least KK are back anyway, the championship wouldn’t be the same without their dominant presence haha
Tells us very little about Kilkenny. Cody knows it too.
Yet again offaly meet killkenny in the openers must be pretty demoralizing for offaly think the gaa should give the whole the thing a shake up.although high scoring game poor enough .turned it off after 45 min.all optics for sky …dub supporter