Kerry welcome timeout as plenty of work to do

Eamonn Fitzmaurice admitted Kerry’s humbling defeat yesterday has changed his mind about their 11-week break until their championship bow.

Although he felt his side’s chances of reaching a semi-final were diminished by Derry’s naming of a second string team against Mayo, he expected more from his charges.

“I mean, when we saw the team that Derry picked, we figured that regardless of whether we won or lost, we wouldn’t get into the semi-finals. But the fact that we’d won three games in a row, we wanted to keep that going.