Beirne bags a dozen as Kildare put a scoring clinic on Leitrim
Alex Beirne scored 12 points as Kildare brushed off their Leinster Championship disappointment by strolling to the most facile of victories at a sunny Cedral St Conleths Park in the opening round of the Tailteann Cup.
Any lingering hangover from the Leinster semi-final defeat to Louth was blown away as Brian Flanagan's men turned in an exhibition of shooting on a perfect evening for football.
Kildare had their chances in that game against Louth and had shown a reluctance to shoot from long range in earlier games this year. Here, against admittedly weaker opponents, you could see their confidence grow with every point as they began to shoot with freedom.
Beirne led the way with a superb display of free taking and long-range shooting but he was far from on his own with Darragh Swords and Ryan Sinkey sharing 12 points evenly between them.
It wasn't quite all plain sailing though. After a blistering start when Kildare led 0-6 to 0-1 after 14 minutes, Leitrim showed that they weren't just in Newbridge to make up the numbers.
Barry McNulty kicked an excellent two-point free and then when Keith Keegan scored in the 27th minute there was just two points between the teams, 0-7 to 0-5.
That, however, just woke Kildare from their slumber and they took off on a run of 11 points in the next eight minutes of play, including a two point effort from Beirne.
McNulty and Keegan scored the last two points of the half but Kildare still led 0-16 to 0-7 at the break.
Leitrim could have fashioned a goal in the opening 30 seconds after the restart but the final pass to Keegan was just at the wrong height and he couldn't make the right connection.
After that, it was one way traffic with Kildare completely dominating the tie.
Their performance reach a crescendo seven minutes into the second period when the injury-jinxed Jimmy Hyland, making his first Championship start since 2022, set up Beirne for a two-point score and then he brilliantly converted from similar range himself a minute later.
To their credit, Kildare never took their foot off their pedal and kept the scoreboard ticking over right up until the last kick of the game when goalkeeper Cian Burke converted a 45.
The only thing missing from the Kildare performance was a goal but after scoring 36 points there was few of a Lilywhite persuasion complaining.
Scorers for Kildare: A Beirne 0-12 ( 2tp, 2tpf, 3f), D Swords 0-6(1f) R Sinkey 0-6(1f), K Feely 0-3, J Hyland 0-3 (1tp),D Kirwan, M O'Grady, J McGrath, H O'Neill, N O'Sullivan, C Burke (1f) 0-1 each
Scorers for Leitrim: B McNulty 0-6 (2 tpf, 1f), T Prior 0-2, K Keegan 0-2, R O Rourke 0-1
KILDARE: Cian Burke; Harry O'Neill, Mark Dempsey, Ryan Burke; Kevin Flynn, David Hyland, James McGrath; Kevin Feely, Mick O'Grady; Darragh Swords, Alex Beirne, Paddy McDermott; Ryan Sinkey, Darragh Kirwan, Jimmy Hyland.
Subs: Rian Teahan for Kirwan, h/t; Brendan Gibbons for Feely, 44; Ryan Houlihan for J Hyland, 52; Niall O'Sullivan for K Flynn, 56-63 b/s), Daniel Flynn for Beirne, 59; Niall O'Sullivan for O'Neill, 66.
LEITRIM: Daire O'Shea; Éanna McNamara, Donal Casey, Kieran Clancy; James Rooney, Mark Diffley, Jack Foley; Barry McNulty, Cillian McGloin; David Feeney, Keith Keegan, Tom Prior; Ben Guckian, Riordan O'Rourke, Darren Cox.
Subs: Tom Hughes for McNamara, 47; Seán Harkin for David Feeney, 52; Ryan Bohan for Rooney, 63; Joe McGloin for O'Rourke, 65; Shane Finn for Clancy, 65.
Referee: Liam Devenney (Mayo)
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