‘We just didn’t function up front’

Kerry boss Eamon Fitzmaurice was honest about where his team lost yesterday’s McGrath Cup final.

They had chances, he said, they just didn’t take them.

“In the first half we’d a lot of opportunities but we weren’t clinical at all in the final third. In an inter-county match if you’re not converting chances, it’s going to come back to bite you.

“We missed a couple of goal chances and gettable points. We wouldn’t be happy with the performance and the result. But it’s the McGrath Cup, we’ve to go back to planning now for the league.

“We just didn’t function up front today. You get days like that. It’d be more worrying if we weren’t creating the chances. This time last year in the league we weren’t creating them.”

Though his Cork counterpart wasn’t too impressed with the black card system implemented in yesterday’s game, Fitzmaurice had no complaints.

“I thought they all were black cards the way I was looking at it, I thought Derek O’Mahony reffed the game very well, I wouldn’t have a crib with any of the black cards.

“I thought it (the advantage rule) was good, there were a couple of times when the forward was fouled, took a shot that didn’t work out – and then the play was brought back for a free. I thought the referee did well today.”

Brian Cuthbert had taken a different view of course, asking rhetorically if a forward taking a shot could be challenged at all.

“That’s the rule, I suppose,” said Fitzmaurice. “If a forward is taking a shot you could say the advantage is gone at that stage, but the rule is five seconds and you can bring it back.

“It’s probably a bit of a loophole, but it is what it is. I think it’ll be the pattern that as the game proceeds, players get fatigued and the stakes get higher – I think we had it back to a goal – that that’s when these black cards are going to happen. That could be the pattern, that they start coming towards the end of games.”

Attention now turns to the league, and Fitzmaurice is keen to avoid the slow start which had Kerry on the back foot early on last season.

“We wouldn’t like to wait until our fifth game to get points on the board, like we did last year. I think if you can get two points on the board after the first two games you’re in a good situation, whereas if you don’t it can become a bit of a struggle, as it was for us last year. We have to get ready for two weeks’ time.”

Their league opener is a glamour clash with Dublin, but Fitzmaurice pointed out some big names will be missing.

“It is (a marquee game) but the teams will be a good bit different to the teams which lined out last summer. They’ll be down the St Vincent’s players, we’ll be down the Crokes players, so both sides will be a bit different.

“Of course it’ll be billed as a big game – it’s the first game of the league, Dublin are All-Ireland champions, but it’s a great game for us to have. We’ll just have to improve a good bit from today.”