Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng urged his side to "drive on" to the All-Ireland semi-finals after securing the Leinster title with a 3-22 to 1-20 victory over Galway in the final at Croke Park.
Far from perfect, was the verdict from the Cats boss who felt that the game failed to ignite in the first half, but was pleased with his side's second-half performance.
Or at least until Galway staged a comeback, of sorts, as they hit 1-06 unanswered in the final five minutes, before Kilkenny eventually responded and clinched a third goal to secure the victory.
I’m delighted," said Lyng, speaking to RTE Sport after the victory. "Particularly in the second half, we worked really hard and upped it a lot. It was probably a cagey first half, but overall, really pleased.
"The panel have put in a huge effort. Our ambition at the end of the league was to go and win a Leinster, and now we’re into the All-Ireland series, and we know we are going to have to step it up again.
"We just about did enough. Obviously, near the end there making life a little bit hard for ourselves, but we tend to do that at times, but that’s the sport and our response was quite good as well."
Kilkenny move straight into the last-four of the All-Ireland by virtue of winning the provincial crown and they will have to wait and see who they will face for a place in this year’s decider.
But in the meantime, Lyng feels the hard work will continue and go up a notch as the competition for places builds with a strong panel and others expected to return over the course of the next month.
"It wasn’t perfect, we know that, but certainly parts of it we were pleased with and now we have to drive on for the next four weeks," said Lyng.
"We’re doing a huge amount of work the last couple of years but in particular, there’s lads coming of age and we have a strong squad, and it’s very competitive at the moment and we need to continue it.
"Competition drives everything in training, and hopefully we have a few lads back the next day as well.
"We have a big month ahead, the competition is there, and once we get over today, that’s in the background.
"We’re looking forward then, and we’ll have a competitive few weeks, hopefully."
Galway manager Micheál Donoghue had no complaints after watching his side come up short at Headquarters, and will now face a quarter-final encounter against Tipperary or Laois later this month.
Donoghue echoed Lyng’s appraisal of the opening 35 minutes, calling it cagey, but was essentially disappointed with his side’s overall performance.
"It was a bit nip and tuck and a bit cagey by both teams," said the Galway manager. "On reflection, we were disappointed with the way we played, and we didn’t implement the style we wanted to play.
"But you have to give huge credit to Kilkenny, they showed the gap in the experience of where they are as a team right now, and the goal before half time gave them the cushion.
And they started well in the second half and pushed it out to 12 points. The lads rallied really well and brough it back to four, but they conceded another 1-01 quickly, and that was game over.
They showed the quality and experience that they had and a few of their big players stood up and got a few great scores to push it out again.
Donoghue said that he would try to take the positives out of the Kilkenny game and remind the players of their challenge to employ a more imposing style earlier in the game.
"Of course, we’ll take the positive out of it, but we know the journey we are on and we have to be up for the challenge every single day and try to impose yourself early in the game.
"That is something we’ll reflect back on and be sorry for, but we’ll get back training this week and look forward to two weeks’ time."
