‘We tried to set our own standards’

FACILE winners of a Munster semi-final by 27 points. What could Na Gaeil manager Donal Rooney possibly say to sum up an outcome like that?

“It was obviously a comfortable win. We just tried to set our own standards really,” he said.

“There were things in the first half, even though we were ahead, our conversion rate was very poor. We just tried to improve that in the second half and I think we did that overall. Defensively, we were very, very solid. Any time that they got into our ‘45, we turned them over. Our tackling was very good throughout,” added Rooney.

The previous week’s victory over Kilshannig was pretty much the first time that Na Gaeil had all their squad together since the county junior triumph earlier in the year. The bainisteoir is hopeful that another outing will bring the team on even further.

“It’s two competitive games in-a-row now. We’ll have another one next week with the St Brendan’s Board Final on Friday night. That’s another big game for us and we’ll be trying to win that.

“We’ve two good weeks ahead of us now to look forward to the Munster Final and that’s what we’d have been looking to do since the start of the year.”

That provincial decider will be against Tipperary’s Mullinahone on Sunday, December 8 following their three-point victory (2-10 to 1-10) over Limerick’s Croom in their last four encounter.

“I know very little about them. I suppose they are predominantly a hurling club but we’ll do our research on them and we would have had somebody up at their game today alright,” added Rooney.

The Na Gaeil boss confirmed that key attacker, Diarmuid Herlihy, went off in the second half after receiving a bang on the calf, but would be fine for the St Brendans’ decider. He also praised the huge input of wing-forward Dan Goggin.

“Dan is a phenomenal athlete, a really good hurler for Kerry. We managed to get him back into our team and, any time we do that, our forward unit moves really, really well. He’s an intelligent player, really lively, constant workrate and very good vision. We’re delighted to have him with us.”

With the record that Kerry’s junior and intermediate sides have had since the beginning of these competitions in the previous decade, there has been much criticism of the different gradings used in the different counties, that have led to so many one-sided results.

Rooney did not shy away from addressing the situation.

“A scoreline like today is not good for football, but to be honest it’s a bit of a freak thing for the last few years, with ourselves and Beaufort. We probably could have and should have won this a few years ago when we were down in Division 3 or 4 and, if we had come out that time, we probably wouldn’t have been as accomplished as we are now.

“The last few years, up in Division 1 in Kerry, same as Beaufort, we were playing teams of a very high standard and that brought us on a pile. Then when you come out and play at junior level in Munster, there is a bit of a disparity there.

“There’s going to be no Division 1 team at junior level next year, a few in Division 2, but the vast majority will be Division 3 or 4 teams. For the last few years, ourselves and Beaufort have won a few games fairly easily, but I don’t know if that will be the case going forward.”