Daly: “We have to show character now.”

Dublin hurling manager, Anthony Daly, says his side need "to show character” if they are to bounce back from Sunday’s disappointing Leinster SHC final defeat to Kilkenny.

The Cats outclassed the Dubs in Croke Park, leaving Daly’s men with a fair degree of soul-searching to do before the All-Ireland quarter-final.

“I can’t really explain this defeat. Kilkenny were dominant in so many positions. They got into their rhythm pretty quickly. We dropped simple ball out of our hands early on and didn’t take the right options. When we did take the right options, our first touch was off. You wouldn’t think that in training. We never seemed to get to the pitch of the play. We were lucky to be within four points at half-time. We did take consolation from that at the break, in that we hadn’t played but we were still in with a shout. We had a couple of goal chances in the second half and didn’t take them. The better team won and the scoreline reflected that at the finish" said Daly. 

"There is the old adage of going to the wall and absolutely making it happen. We didn’t do enough of that today and have no real excuses. A lot of people will be writing our epitaph and so it’s up to us now to respond and give a massive quarter-final performance" he added. "We have to show character. There’s another day around the corner and we have to lift it!"