Dunne: League changes essential for us to improve

Wexford manager Liam Dunne has repeated his plea for the GAA to review the National League structure.

He also dismissed the idea that Galway’s Leinster final win over Kilkenny was good for hurling in the province’s original counties.

“We’ll regroup again and hopefully the GAA will look at the National League again and they’ll put Wexford and Offaly in with these teams. How are players going to improve at that level?

“I’m delighted with the way the boys fought back. On another day they could have been blitzed down here in Thurles but we weren’t really, we showed a lot of heart and guts and I’m delighted with that.

“[Cork] have a lot of young players. John Gardiner wasn’t brought in. It’s about Liam Dunne looking after Wexford and let Cork look after themselves.

“I was asked was it good for Leinster hurling that Galway won last week. Is it any good for a Wexford hurler that a Connacht man is winning a Leinster medal? I don’t know, but it’s good for the Galway hurlers.”

Dunne, who feels Cork will come on in spades after beating Offaly and Wexford, was pleased with the reaction he got from his team even if they let themselves down on occasions withbasic errors.

“A steep learning curve there — there were a lot of simple hurling aspects that we didn’t do there and Cork made it look easy at times.

“They are more used to playing at the top level and that’s what we need to do.”

Dunne seemed to believe his team’s 10-point deficit in the end was harsh.

“I’ll let ye decide. In fairness the lads are hugely disappointed with the end result. If we scored 2-17 a lot of days we’d win the games when coming up to these teams at these levels you have to be more clinical in front of goal as well.”

He acknowledged Cork’s first-half goals were major blows. “It took a huge effort to get back within two points but you can’t concede the goals we conceded against Cork at that level or any level.

“We had a few chances ourselves. Eoin Quigley had a chance and the goalie [Anthony Nash] made a great save and that’s the difference between winning and losing.”

Dunne also reiterated his hope to have a few dual players as well as Stephen Nolan in his ranks next season.