St Conleth's Park gearing up for reopening

Sunday's Kildare Senior Football final will mark a significant occasion for the county with the official opening of the refurbished St Conleth's Park.

Naas, who've won the last three finals, are set to take on Celbridge at 2pm, with the winners set to face Dublin champions Cuala at the same venue on 9 November.

The refurbishment at the Newbridge venue took just over 18 months, having begun at the end of March last year, and has seen a new 3,000 seater stand constructed with the overall cost of the project coming in at around €12.9 million.

The overall capacity of the ground is set to be about 15,000 with new dressing rooms in the main stand, alongside officials' changing rooms and the Club Kildare Lounge.

The stadium boasts state of the art new floodlights while the pitch has been relayed and widened, and will now be watered with supplies from a new irrigation system.

The Lilywhites will hope the return of their home ground will help the county's footballers to arrest a recent slump that has seen them relegated to Division 3 of the National Football League.

In last year's All-Ireland football group stages, Kildare's home game had to be played at Nowlan Park in Kilkenny, where they were beaten by neighbours Dublin in front of a crowd of 8,216. The Lilywhites beat Dublin in the league in the old St Conleth's Park in 2022.