McGeeney doffs cap to Dubs

IF imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then Kieran McGeeney doffed a metaphorical hat in Pat Gilroy’s direction when the Kildare manager and three of his players faced the media at breakfast time yesterday.

One of the first decisions his Dublin counterpart made when succeeding Paul Caffrey was to introduce the weekly briefing sessions ahead of matches over coffee and pastries in an effort to stem the flow of phone calls from scribes and broadcasters to his panel.

The reasoning was simple: the less distractions, the better his players would perform and McGeeney went a step further yesterday by washing his hands of the fourth estate 12 days before their Leinster semi-final against the Dubs.