GAA: NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE DIVISION 2B – ROUND 4 – POST-MATCH REACTION
Certain elements I wouldn’t be happy with – David Herity
By Daire Walsh
DESPITE having all of 27 points to spare over Roscommon in a National Hurling League Division 2B clash at Dr Hyde Park last Sunday, Kildare manager David Herity felt his side’s final margin of victory could have been even more comprehensive.
Having comfortably defeated Donegal and Derry in the opening two rounds of the competition, the Lilywhites consolidated their position at the summit of the table with a 4-25 to 0-10 triumph. Yet – akin to their previous two encounters – Herity acknowledged there were periods where Kildare weren’t quite at their best.
There’d be certain elements, as I said to the lads there, that I wouldn’t be happy with. I thought we completely tuned off in that second half and let Roscommon get back into it, and they probably outscored us for large chunks of that second half,” Herity remarked after last weekend’s game.
“We have to get to that level of ruthlessness there that we’re trying to kill off teams and keep going. Keep going all the way to the end. Derry came back for the last 10 minutes and so did Donegal. Without being negative, I just would love to get to that stage where we keep going for 70 odd minutes.”
Nonetheless, Herity has plenty of reason to be cheerful when he reflects on the performance against the Connacht men. In attack, Jack Sheridan (2-5) and David Slattery (2-1) were in fine form while midfielder Paul Divilly finished with an outstanding tally of five points.
This dynamic triumvirate will need be on top of their game at MacHale Park in Castlebar this Saturday when Kildare battle it out with Mayo for the right to play in Division 2A of next year’s league.
“We are blessed with the amount of forwards. There’s a lot of competition there for places and lads know that. Anyone that’s coming in, they don’t get a token run of it. You have to earn your place and I thought the lads on the inside, especially when Roscommon had dropped back two extra players, they still were able to find those goal-scoring opportunities and took them.
“It’s a final basically [against Mayo]. It’s extremely competitive. They’ll be back home. They know themselves, one win and they’ve won the league. We just have to get ourselves right. It’s a six-day turnaround to get ourselves right for next Saturday,” Herity added.