Kilkenny boss Derek Lyng admitted that his side’s League final drubbing from Limerick was a “sobering experience”.
Lyng’s side made a fast start to the game and moved three points in front by the sixth minute but they were rocked by Barry Nash’s goal in the 18th minute and had fallen six adrift by half-time. In the end, they were flattered by an 11-point defeat, 2-20 to 0-15.
He said: “I thought we were competitive probably for the first 35 minutes. Once Limerick got the goal, we struggled for a spell then after that.
“Second half, I thought we started reasonably well but then we coughed up a few scores again and maybe one or two half-chances we didn’t take.
“Look, they just punish you. We made too many mistakes. Our handling wasn’t good at times. We were under pressure coming out with the ball and when you’re hesitant coming out against a team like Limerick they’ll bury you and that’s what happened.”
He added: “Obviously, today was a sobering experience for everybody and I think it grounds everybody and you just have to strip everything back and that’s what we’ll do.
“I think a lot of the things we weren’t good at today, we can be better at, we can improve on it. It doesn’t happen overnight, though. We’ll just keep working.”
Lyng said he wouldn’t trade the experience of reaching this stage of the competition in his first season, despite how chastening it proved to be.
“I wanted to be here. Players wanted to be here. We probably started off the League, I think we were shaky enough. I thought we improved as the League went on.
“I’d prefer to be playing the best team in the country. That’s obviously what happened today.
“It wasn’t a good experience. We know we weren’t good enough. But for me I’d prefer to be testing myself against the best and try and learn from it and build on it and that’s what we’re going to do.
“If we can do that, then it was a worthwhile experience. If we don’t, well we can reflect on the year maybe at the end of it and say it wasn’t but, for me, that’s the way we’re going and we just have to reset now and get ready for Championship.”
Meanwhile, Lyng voiced his disapproval at the new protocols around team announcements, with the GAA now releasing Championship squads on Friday afternoons.
“I think it causes everybody issues. I don’t know where the common sense is in that decision to be honest. If you have a match on a Sunday, you train on a Friday night. You give the team to the players first so I don’t understand it at all.
“So what’s going to happen is that the 26 players you get won’t be an accurate reflection on the programme so I don’t understand it.”
Turning his attention to the Munster Championship, which his side are bidding to win for the fifth year running, Limerick manager John Kiely was at pains to talk up the challenge that they will face within their own province.
“There’s an incredibly tough Munster championship coming up,” he said. “If you were to look back on the last three or four you’d have to say this is possibly the most competitive one.
“There’s a lot teams that can hurt you very badly, very quickly if they’re given the opportunity. That’s not lost on us. We have two weeks’ work to get done now before the first round against Waterford and our focus is very firmly going in that direction.”
And that meant no celebrations after securing another national crown, the third League title of Kiely’s reign.
“The boys will be feet up now, having a cup of tea this evening. That’ll be the thing. Listen, the window is very short. As much as you’d like to give them a bit of freedom, they’ve had their chances over the last number of months.
“It’s a case of, go home and relax now, and get ready for Tuesday night.”
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