GAA Digest: Kilkenny beats Dublin in goal-fest

Dubs scored six goals and 12 points and still lost

“Straight wins is the way to do it, we need to keep the roll going by winning games. It’s ironic that when the conditions got bad our players got a spurt of energy.

“We had ourselves ahead at halftime, probably against the run of play, and we knew if we went out and won the second half we’d be in a good place. We won’t be sitting down thinking we are world beaters, we are a work in progress and we have plenty more to do.”

Harte was furious, however, after corner back PJ Quinn was sent-off for an off-the-ball incident involving Padraic Joyce.

He added, “PJ Quinn says he was just pulled around and, in the swing-around, his foot hit him in the knee or somewhere, that he never kicked him or anything they are putting him down for.

“He is adamant that is not the case and I would well believe it. He has never had a red card in his life.”

Sean Cavanagh made his return to the Tyrone colors in the game after a shoulder injury and admitted afterwards, “I feel good. I’m a bit tired but that was my first competitive game in seven-and-a-half months. It’s good to get the lungs open and last the 70 minutes, and it was all about the result.

“It’s mission accomplished. We are qualified and we can push on now. The guys are working really hard. You need to be in sublime condition to do that and we are lucky to be in such good physical fitness to be able to play that sort of football.

“It’s early days yet. It’s only March but things are moving in the right direction.”
 
Kerry Wins
KERRY’S newcomers were to the fore again as the Kingdom crushed hosts Cork in the NFL tie on Sunday, boosted by an impressive start.

Goalkeeper Brendan Kealy praised the new Kerry players and said, “It’s great to see it. They’ve come in there and haven’t looked out of place. They have settled in perfectly. It just makes training and everything that much better when everyone is fighting for their place.”

Cork trailed by 0-2 to 0-8 at the break and eventually lost by 0-11 to 0-13, much to the disgust of manager Conor Counihan.

“Crazy, crazy, absolutely crazy first half,” he said. “You wouldn’t deserve to win a game playing the way we played in the first half.

“It just wasn’t good enough and the lads know that themselves. There was a bit of a response in the second half, but you have to play for 70 minutes at this level or you don’t get a result.”
 
Down Wins
DUBLIN forward Eoghan O’Gara is awaiting the results of a scan on a groin injury picked up in the warm-up before his team suffered a shock NFL defeat away to Down on Sunday.

Manager Pat Gilroy confirmed, “Eoghan had a problem with his groin. He was just doing a warm-up and there was no way he could play so that disrupted things a bit.

“He’d been going very well but there’s no excuses. That wasn’t the reason our intensity wasn’t at the races today.

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Nster.com