We never came out of the traps, admits dejected Crofton

TO listen to John Crofton outside the Kildare dressing-room yesterday, to hear him admit that his team had not done themselves justice, it’s clear that there will be a lot of soul-searching within the camp over the next couple of weeks.

All the more so when he acknowledged the fact that the Lillywhites don’t have ‘the culture, or the tradition’ of coming back strongly through the backdoor! They have seven weeks to prepare for the first round of the All-Ireland qualifiers on July 7 and whatever about the fate of Killian Brennan, there is a possibility that Dermot Earley will have recovered sufficiently from his ankle operation to return.

The one thing they have on their side is ‘time,’ he agreed. Firstly, the players will have a break for a week. They will have the opportunity to think of ‘the awful lot of time’ put into preparing for yesterday’s game, only to see much of it going to waste.