Dublin manager Ger Cunningham was quick to play down the significance of his side's impressive win over Kilkenny at Nowlan Park, but admitted that he was delighted with his players' performance and their ability to score.
The former Cork custodian watched on as the Dubs prevailed by 0-25 to 3-11 to maintain their winning start to Division 1A and give them a first win at Nowlan Park since 1964.
“It’s two points in the league,” Cunningham told RTÉ Sport after the game in the Marble City. "Kilkenny weren’t at full strength today.”
However, he was happy to take the victory, particularly in Nowlan Park, and identified as a positive his side’s ability to put points on the scoreboard.
“It’s a challenging place at the best of times to come to the home of the All-Ireland champions. Nowlan Park is a tough place to play, but I’m delighted with the performance the lads gave today. We got 0-25, which is a good score and that’s encouraging.
“But again, I suppose you have got to take into the consideration that Kilkenny weren’t all full strength today, obviously,” he added.
“There were quite a few of their star names (missing) due to retirement and the Ballyhale connection as well.
“But nonetheless, you know, for us to come down here, you can only beat what’s put in front of you.”
"Kilkenny, they’re All-Ireland champions, they didn’t give up the fight, and they made it tough for us at the end" - Ger Cunningham
After a promising start, in which they led 0-15 to 1-05 at half-time, Dublin pushed on, and led at one point by 0-24 to 2-09, but it was not a performance without errors, and Cunningham said the Dubs would have things to improve on.
“We did start very well and we were comfortable, tacking on the points, and keeping the scoreboard ticking over,” he said, before noting that Dublin would need to improve their performance at clearing their lines, and that they would have things to work on.
“There’s that aspect, and other stuff in the second half that we’ll to improve on.”
He said that the early red card for Kilkenny’s Johnjo Farrell had impacted the game, but pointed out that sometimes teams rally after going down to 14 men.
“Sometimes a team can rally, and you’re down here in Kilkenny, and the crowd got behind them for a bit, but I think we kind of killed the game early in the second half. We got some very good scores.
“But again, it shows that Kilkenny, they’re All-Ireland champions, they didn’t give up the fight, and they made it tough for us at the end.”
Cunningham said Kilkenny’s two late goals “put it up to us”, and questioned whether his players had dropped their intensity when the Cats went down to 13 men. But he said, ultimately Dublin had enough to see out the game.
“You don’t want to be in a situation where you’re kind of panicking in the last minutes when you’ve been ahead for most of the match.
“But at the same time, we were expecting a fight back from Kilkenny. We said it at half-time, they were going to come back at us and get a purple patch, but I think at the end of it we had enough on the scoreboard.”
