A THIRD SATURDAY night in succession for Mattie Kenny to digest the outcome of a hurling championship match and this was the last in 2020 for the Dublin manager.
He had no reluctance in accepting his team collided with a superior Cork outfit last night. The gruelling schedule that saw them line out after facing Kilkenny last weekend and Laois seven days previously, was a hindrance though.
“The lads (were) slightly heavy-legged today. Three championship matches in two weeks, so obviously the little knocks and bruises are starting to add up.
“We were the only team out this weekend who has played three weekends in a row. That’s not an excuse but it was probably a contributory factor.
“Of course we were a little concerned before but we couldn’t express that concern. You can’t put doubts in the players’ minds.
“But when you win your first one and then you’re out and you’re out again. Some teams that lost their first game got a two-week break and might have been in a better position going into tonight’s game than we were.
“That’s the luck of the draw and as I say we’re not complaining.”
There were enough aspects of the game’s play that Kenny could identify as being key to influencing the outcome.
“Obviously they have a lot of pace in their side. When we pushed up on them, they played in behind us a little bit. And when we dropped back, they played in front of us. They used the ball very, very well. That five or six point lead is what they held for a long time.
“We felt half way through the second half we needed a goal. We had a couple of opportunities, but we didn’t take any of them. If we got one of them, maybe that would have given us some momentum to claw them back fully. Our execution and our finishing wasn’t at the top level.
“But on the night, you have to say Cork was the best team and deserved their victory.”
The Dublin boss was conscious beforehand of a Cork backlash after their limp exit from the Munster championship.
“We knew there’d be a different Cork team here tonight. I know they were very disappointed with their performance the last day, they got a bit of criticism the last day so they were going to come out to prove a point tonight.
“They started very, very quickly. We knew that they’re a very proud county and they were going to come with a big, big push here. We knew that so were under no illusions there but it was up to us to match them and unfortunately we didn’t do that.”
It brings the curtain down on Dublin’s season. It’s the second successive year they have made an early qualifier exit but there was a marked difference in setting from that July 2019 loss to Laois when O’Moore Park heaved with colour and noise in the summer sunshine.
2020 has provided perspective as Kenny offered his summation on a November night in a near-empty Semple Stadium.
“We were all very lucky to get this championship this year. We were all delighted it went ahead.
“When you’re in a competition, you want to go and compete and do the best you can. I’m so proud of these guys and the character they showed in difficult times in the last few weeks. They never backed off, they kept coming, even there in that second half, even though Cork had a good lead, our guys kept pushing.
“Subs came on and did a really good job, they tried to get us back into the game. Look it we’re now in early November, the season is over for our guys tonight. We’re disappointed with that and New Year isn’t too far away.”
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