But McIver defends his players
smiled. Kilcoo manager Paul McIver cut a deflated figure afterwards.
As much as they object to the assertion, they clearly had an Ulster title in their sights this winter.
“It’s a hard defeat to take, especially when we really had got our preparations right. We went at the game maybe too hard in the first half — I suppose when you get over-hyped and over-emotional, maybe we were over-eager in the tackle,” he began.
“I know Paddy [Murray] had talked about frees, wherever that was coming from, but we’ve worked really hard on our tackling all year, and at times we were wasting an awful lot of energy getting in and tackling in positions we shouldn’t have been tackling in.”
He added: “We were getting loads of abuse coming up through the stand about it and I was trying to find out what the hell it was all about — behold, there it’s been in the newspapers all week.
“That’s just the way it is, you pay no attention to these things.
“We have been working really hard this last couple of years on our tackling, and we have improved on that.
“Look, it’s just another one gone, that’s the way it is…”
“I think we were the better team,” added Kearney about how close it was at the finish as Kilcoo pushed them right to the very end with O’Hanlon’s piledriver coming back off the crossbar in the final play of the game and Slaughtneil supporters wearing out the Rosary Beads.
“But that’s football. You can be caught out.
“We got through and that’s all that counts.”
They will now face Tyrone champions Omagh St Enda’s on October 28 in Celtic Park in the quarter-final.