Brick looks to final with encouragement and enthusiasm

KERRY manager Ian Brick was in good spirits following his sides 4-26 to 0-8 victory over Down, with Brick hoping to have a full panel of players available for the decider against Derry.

“Well we’ve two boys out from the last game against Kildare so again we hope they clear up. We’re not too sure yet. Look we’re just happy I suppose we came through, we think the injuries aren’t too serious so we’ll just assess those during the week.”

Brick admitted that he may like to see Kerry compete at a higher level in the future, hinting that it may be something to look at for next season.

“It maybe is something for some administrators to consider maybe for next year but look all we can do now is focus on Derry for two weeks time. What they’re trying to do I suppose is bring more teams up to the same level really.

“Last year Sligo and Donegal would have been in the C Championship maybe even Tyrone so that was kind of amalgamated this year then so we had eleven teams, but look it’s just the way it worked out for us.”

Brick could not hide his satisfaction at booking a place in the decider while also stating that Derry will be a big step up in class.

“An awful lot of positives again out of that performance. We’d be confident of putting in a good performance. I suppose we’ve been patchy so far. This will be our fourth game so we’ll be aiming for a better performance.

“We’d be confident yeah, but we know as I said Derry are going to be a step above what we’ve played so far as well, They’re going to be really tough opposition. They played at A level last year so look we’ll see where we’re at after that.”

Brick also paid tribute to Sligo who he believes provided a strong physical test for the Kingdom despite the score-line.

“I suppose you have to give credit to Sligo they kept battling to the end. They put in some very hard and heavy hits and like I said they kept battling so they kept us going right to the end so there was no easing off but yeah we’re just delighted to be in the final again.”

Brick also revealed he would prefer a cakewalk of a semi-final rather than scraping over the line against quality opposition.

“We probably would have taken a handy semi-final over a real tough semi-final to be fair because the lads are training so much and they’re playing so many club games as well.”

Kerry did put up a good showing and were full value for their 30 point victory, but in truth Kerry hurling would be better served competing at a higher level one would believe.