Joyce glad to put county cares on back-burner

It took years for Kieran Joyce to break into Brian Cody’s side but the defender is perfectly happy to be on the outside looking in as Kilkenny start to put the disappointments of their 2013 championship to bed.

Joyce was wing-back on the side that fell to Cork in last summer’s quarter-final, but his club applied a sticking plaster to the wound with a campaign that only concludes this weekend with an All-Ireland Intermediate final against Galway’s Kilnadeema/Leitrim.

“I haven’t been in at all yet [with Kilkenny] and I haven’t seen pre-season, which is a blessing in disguise,” said the Rower Inistioge clubman. “Its been great. We went out early in July and we just concentrated with the club and had a great eight months.