Manager impressed with class of young Cullen

ZACH CULLEN is in contention to feature in Wicklow’s opening National Football League game against Carlow at the end of January, following his impressive performance in their 2-14 to 2-7 defeat to Kildare in Aughrim on Saturday afternoon, manager Davy Burke has revealed.

Burke reserved special praise for the 18-year-old Avondale defender after his stand-out performance against the Lilywhites in the O’Byrne Cup; his first appearance for the senior footballers.

Cullen played all 70 minutes as Wicklow came up short against Kildare on Saturday, despite having gone into the interval 2-6 to 1-3 in front after an excellent first-half display, and his manager complimented the intelligence he has demonstrated since joining up with the panel.

‘Zach Cullen making his senior debut there. I thought he was stand-out. He’s a class act. Again,

Eoin Darcy, second senior game; Andy Maher, second senior game; Wayne Doyle, second senior game. Hugely positive performance all around. A lot of errors, but we’ll have to work on them.

‘Zach’s a very intelligent footballer. We’ve been very impressed in training with his brain.

‘He’s not the biggest lad in the world, but he’s physical enough for a young guy.

‘He makes up for anything he lacks in his size or height with his brain. I thought he was excellent.

‘Now, he was some work to do. He takes it into contact a bit much. If I was Zach’s size, I wouldn’t be running into guys like Tommy Moolick, so there’s a bit to work on there, but overall, he’s very much in contention to play on the 25th of January against Carlow.’

Reflecting on his team’s loss, Burke lamented the errors that cost his players an early goal in the second half against his native county, while also saying that the wind played a significant role in the contest.

‘You can’t give Daniel Flynn a sniff; he wasn’t an AFL player for no reason.

‘That was a cruel blow. Obviously, a goal straight away put us under a bit of pressure then, but we stemmed it and we got a grip on the game.

‘You see Chris O’Brien getting frees up there; it’s almost impossible to score up there when the wind is up. You saw Kildare struggle with it in the first half.

‘We knew that every score in the second half would have to be fought for. Overall, the result is disappointing, but the performance was one of huge positivity.

‘We had the wind in the firsthalf, they had the wind in the second-half.

‘We knew that they were going to come back into it.

‘They’re a division two team; they’re not going to just lie down. Our lads showed great heart.

‘We used three subs; Kildare used nine? Ten? We got 76 minutes into 18 lads there. We needed that.’