BY Denis Hurley

It's fitting that clashes between Galway and Kildare have been a feature of John Divilly's career.

In 1998, he played for his native county as they beat the Lilywhites to win a first All-Ireland in over 30 years. Then, after moving to Kildare, he lined out for them for a season and played a league game against Galway in 2006.

Now, having taken the reins with the Kildare ladies football side, his managerial career begins this weekend with a trip west on Sunday for a Tesco Homegrown Ladies NFL Division 2 clash. After spells with various club teams, and NUI Maynooth's Sigerson Cup side, this is his first intercounty role.

"Last year, during the summer Joe Donoghue, the manager then, asked three of us, me, David Hughes and Mark Hogarty, to go in and give a hand coaching," he said.

"We were there during the Leinster campaign and then, at the end of the year Joe, for work reasons, couldn't stay on so the county board asked us to take it over and we said we'd give it a go.

"I had been living in Kildare from 2001 until about three years ago, I'm in Dublin now but it's only out the road and I know the girls were."

Following relegation last year, Divilly is hopeful of good showing in the second tier, but knows that the competition will be tough.

"Division 2 is very strong," he said, "you have Kerry, Galway, Clare, all of them were in the latter stages of last year's championship.

"You could say that they're in one bracket, and the other five are in another. Our aim is to try to make the top four so it's five teams going for that one spot, it's good, we have a young panel, they're very eager and they're training very hard.

"It's a matter of trying to combine colleges, Leaving Cert and minor at the moment, and obviously not burn the girls out. Over the course of seven league games we would hope to try out 30 players, and then by the time championship comes around we should have a settled panel." Tweet

Most Read Stories