'We were a clear second best'

Kieran McGeeney has looked destroyed on each occasion he had to address defeat at Croke Park over the last five years.

Yesterday hurt, no doubt about it. But there wasn’t the same haunted look that has accompanied the losses of the past three campaigns.

As he said himself, he is a massively driven individual, motivated by winning, but on this occasion, apart from a brief spell at the end of the first-half and the start of the second, Kildare were a clear second best.