Ladies Gaelic Football

www.ladiesgaelic.ie | AUTUMN 2023 | 25 COACH FOCUS probably having bigger sights, in terms of mak- ing the final." When Kildare's promotion back to Division 1 - for the first time since 2012 - was sealed with an emphatic 3-11 to 0-7 triumph at the expense of neighbours Laois at Manguard Park on Sunday, March 3, they had the best defensive record across all four divisions of the Lidl NFL. The fact that all seven rounds of Division 4 had been played at this point is a slight caveat, but to have only conceded 1-26 (29) in a total of five games is nonetheless impressive. This is something that O'Hora was particularly pleased about as she had identified developing a strong rearguard as a key focus for Kildare when she was appointed as their manager - having origi- nally spent a year as a coach under her predeces- sor Sean Finnegan - in October 2022. "It was one of the key factors or the first priority when I got the job. I sat down with Con Brennan and Brian Noonan. We literally had a look at where the team was at and we obviously looked at our defending being a priority. In terms of how it compared to where we need to move forward to, and to where we'd come from, from the prior year." Moving beyond this year's NFL Division 2 campaign, O'Hora will be hoping that this defen- sive solidity can serve Kildare well as they move into the TG4 Leinster Senior Football Champion- ship. Their promotion from the intermediate ranks means that the eastern province's top-tier in 2024 will contain no fewer than four teams. In addition to Laois - who themselves were crowned All-Ireland IFC winners in 2022 - Kildare will also be joined by Dublin and Meath, who have been the only counties to secure the All-Ireland senior championship crown since Cork's most recent success of 2016. "It's a huge step up. Two of them [Dublin and Meath] have been All-Ireland champions over the last seven years between themselves. There's a huge level of experience they have in that. They've got a huge basis of strength and conditioning that we've only started to build and develop," O'Hora acknowledged of their forth- coming Leinster opponents. "They're years ahead of us in terms of their S&C, realistically, and years ahead of us in terms of experience at that level. The one thing that we know is that we'll get an honest performance from our team and they'll give 100%. "Those that get to start and obviously it's always a different team that finishes. Anyone that comes into the game will give that level of commitment and they'll give 100%, but it's a huge step up." "ULTIMATELY, IN TERMS OF WHERE WE WERE, OUR REALISTIC GOALS WERE TO STAY IN DIVISION 2, BUT AFTER THE FIRST OR SECOND GAME, OBVIOUSLY WE WERE LOOKING AT 'MAYBE OUR GOALS NEED TO SHIFT A LITTLE BIT'. Images: 1. Kildare manager Diane O'Hora during the 2023 TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Intermediate Football Championship Final match between Clare and Kildare at Croke Park in Dublin. O'Hora is also looking at this summer's All-Ire- land series in much the same vein and just like their National Football League campaign, the first plan of action will be to ensure that Kildare can at least retain their status as a senior cham- pionship side moving into 2025. "If you want to look at our goals for the senior championship, it's to not get relegated back into intermediate. Again, that is going to end up be- ing a realistic goal for us because as I mentioned earlier, it's the same with the league, there's so much to play for. It's different obviously in the men's, they've just got senior. They don't have grades of football," O'Hora added. "For us, we play Leinster and that puts us into specific groups based on how we fare out in Leinster. It matters, you could be in a group with a provincial winner and another provincial loser, whatever the case might be. "We obviously want to put ourselves into a better position for the championship, but it could be completely out of our hands in terms of how the groups are done. Obviously a realistic target for us with the jumps to senior is to just try and ensure that we remain in senior." www.ladiesgaelic.ie | SPRING 2024 | 25

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