Jason Ryan sees red over Moolick

A wonderful Darroch Mulhall scored nine points for the home side but it was the circumstances surrounding the suspected medial knee ligament injury picked up by midfielder Tommy Moolick, who was lining out in UCD colours, that Ryan was unhappy about.

"You'd question the wisdom of having county players playing against their own county, you'd question the wisdom of having the universities in the O'Byrne Cup in the first place and you'd question the wisdom of asking an amateur player to play a full game on a Sunday, a full game on a Wednesday and Tommy started again today, so it's not ideal.

"I'm not saying if Tommy hadn't played on Wednesday he wouldn't have got injured today but when you've a load like that… Tommy's playing midfield and he's played every minute of the game the last two games they played. That shouldn't have happened and certainly if he was playing with Kildare it wouldn't have happened."

Ryan explained that three of his substitutions were pre-planned based on the amount of game-time players had had in the previous week.

"That level of fatigue is what increases the chances of injuries. From a manager's point of view, having three games in one week is brilliant, being able to look at lots of bodies and see lots of players.

"Kevin Croke is head of strength and conditioning with us this year. We knew before the game that Ciarán Fitzpatrick had to come off, Eamonn Callaghan had to come off, Darroch Mulhall had to come off. They were decisions that were made before the game because we knew their load was such they had to come off."

He pointed out that another Kildare player in the UCD ranks, Niall Kelly also had inter-county U21 duties to go with his senior and college commitments. That was a situation that required communication, he said, although he was coy about whether or not contact had or would be made.

"Communication isn't just me saying something and all the other managers saying something. It's having a bit of a structure to the whole thing as to actually who is going to best take care of these young guys."

Mulhall terrorised UCD with six points from play as well as three from frees, while Tomás O'Connor proved a handful for the visiting defence as well, when the game was still a contest.

Kelly kicked a couple of nice scores for the students, and Ryan Basquel scored a 34th minute goal but it was still 0-11 to 1-3 at half-time.

Fionn Dowling and Pádraig Fogarty helped themselves after the resumption as Kildare strolled to a 13-point success.

SCORERS - Kildare: D Mulhall 0-9 (6f); F Dowling 0-4; E O'Flaherty 0-3 (1f); P Fogarty 0-2; E Callaghan, T O'Connor, H Lynch 0-1 each. UCD: R Basquel 1-2 (0-1f); N Kelly 0-3 (2f).

KILDARE: M Donnellan; G Farrell, C Fitzpatrick, S Campbell; D O'Brien, E Doyle, C O'Donoghue; G White, H Lynch; E O'Flaherty, D Mulhall, K Murnaghan; E Callaghan, T O'Connor, F Dowling. Subs: S McNally for O'Donoghue inj (31), J O'Connor for Doyle (48), B Kinihan for Fitzpatrick blood (52-55), P Fogarty for Mulhall (54), Kinihan for Fitpatrick (59), S Hanafin for Callaghan (62), T Corley for Donnellan (66).

UCD: E Keogh (Laois), C Carr (Dublin), D Byrne (Dublin), S Mulvanney (Dublin), C Lenehan (Meath), P Harnan (Meath), N O'Reilly (Meath), T Moolick (Kildare), M Cahalin (Dublin), E Nolan (Wexford, N Kelly (Kildare), B Fenton (Dublin), R Basquel (Dublin), C Sheridan (Meath), L Connerton (Longford). Subs: S McEntee (Meath) for Harnan in (29), A Murphy (Wicklow) for Mulvanney (ht), G Staples (Wexford) for Carr inj (43), E O'Byrne (Wexford) for Moolick inj (50), A Jordan (Mayo) for Connerton (52), S Kilcoyne (Sligo) for Nolan (61)

WIDES - Kildare: 7(3+4); UCD: 4(2+2).

FREES - Kildare: 16 (9+7); UCD: 18 (11+7).

BOOKED - Kildare: 0; UCD: R Basquel (11)

REF: D Maher (Westmeath).

MAN OF THE MATCH: Darroch Mulhall (Kildare).

That shouldn't have happened and certainly if he was playing with Kildare it wouldn't have happened. - Jason Ryan