Ladies well beaten by Dublin in All-Ireland semi-final

KERRY manager Graham Shine was suitably disappointed after his sides heavy defeat, but he did accept that his team had met a far superior force on the day.

“Dublin got a great start and we were always chasing the game after that. They took their five goals very well and I suppose when you meet a team that’s so good on the front foot, like them, you are going to be punished. They are much further down the line than we are. We finished up with about five minors on the team and they are in a very early stage of their development so that’s a positive. We will learn from it and go back training again in October and will build again from there.”

Playing inter county football takes a massive individual effort and Shine said that he couldn’t be prouder of his players.

“It’s been a long hard season but I couldn’t be prouder of them. The younger players and older worked very well together, we trained four times a week and there were no complaints from any of them. The older players took the younger ones under their wings and were a great help to them.

“Everyone is a bit gutted at the moment but look when we took over the team eight months ago in late January we would have been well pleased to win the Munster championship and get to an All-Ireland semi-final. Of course I want to win an All-Ireland, that’s the goal and I learned a lot from today, we will come back stronger, I have no doubt.”

Kerry defender Eilis Lynch broke into the senior team after coming to prominence when her club Castleisland Desmonds won the All-Ireland Intermediate title in 2014, and she has been a mainstay in the side ever since. Lynch said that the defeat was a bitter one for the team to swallow and that the dressing room was devastated after the loss.

“We came into the game with high expectations but Dublin attacked us in waves and we couldn’t cope with it. The goals killed us really I suppose. Everyone is gutted in the dressing room. We are a tight bunch and thought that we had it in us to make it to the All Ireland final.

“Everyone is hurting at the moment. but we gave it our best shot. We will lick our wounds for a few weeks and hopefully use the hurt that we are feeling to our advantage next season”.