Brick pleased with performance as Lilywhites await

ALL IRELAND UNDER 21 B QUARTER-FINAL

KERRY Under 21 manager Ian Brick is taking it one game at a time as his side bit to retain the title they claimed last time out, with the Kingdom easing to victory over a disappointing Down outfit.

“I suppose after winning last year, we’d be in with a shout of course yeah but look all we can do each match is just focus on every game as it comes and they take on a different life of their own you know.

“Going forward we would of course be hopeful yeah. We feel we’re good enough but look it’s just about having a bit of luck on the day and we’ll see where next week takes us now.”

Brick was delighted to come through his sides encounter against Down with a clean bill of health, with the Kingdom easing to victory over Down, with the game played out in scorching heat in TEG Cusack Park.

“I suppose we hit very good patches and we hit some poor patches. We focus on the positive. We know that we didn’t have a whole pile of time with the boys during the week.

“We can work on those. Delighted as well with the fact that we’ve no injuries after the day and yeah 2-20’s a good score in very difficult conditions, very, very warm. But we got our five subs in as well so yeah very pleased.”

Kerry haven’t really had much time with all the players together with various players unavailable with club or county commitments Brick revealed.

“We knew the competition was coming up. It’s a club county championship you see. We just have can’t get them playing together. We’re obviously watching them. We had a lot of them involved in the senior panel already so it’s just to get them playing together as a team really so yeah we’ve a lot of good stuff there today but I suppose the best part we felt was just the way they applied themselves at times and worked really, really hard and even though Down were a good strong physical side, we kept to our task so we came good in the second half.”

Brick would be open to the idea of Kerry competing in a competition above the B level, stating how his side would definitely feel confident if facing the likes of Laois or Westmeath.

“I suppose it was looked at before all right. We certainly would feel that maybe we would like to be playing the likes of Laois and Westmeath’s even at this level and see where we go.”

Brick stated how his side are trying to replicate the success of the Kerry underage teams who are flying at the moment, but remarked how there are very few people playing hurling in the south of the county.

“In way’s it’s a help because you look at the success of the footballers and you want to be as successful as them. It is of course very difficult because we’ve a very small pocket of clubs.

“We’ve very few playing in South Kerry at the moment. Parnells are still working in Tralee and I suppose until we get more clubs playing senior level we are going to struggle, but look we love our game there. Our Under 21 win was very important for us last year and we’ll just hope to do the same this year.”

Next up for Brick’s men is a tricky quarter-final game with Kildare.