"We had to be better in lots of ways" - Ó Ceallacháin

Dublin hurling boss Niall Ó Ceallacháin said his side “had to be better in lots of ways” against an “excellent” Cork team in yesterday’s All-Ireland SHC semi-final at Croke Park.

The Rebels cruised into the Liam MacCarthy Cup decider in two weeks’ time thanks to a 7-26 to 2-21 victory at headquarters, bringing the curtain down on the capital men’s season in the process.

Speaking to RTE Sport following the 20-point defeat, Ó Ceallacháin summed up the feeling for his group afterwards.

“We're very disappointed. We had to be better in lots of ways,” he stated. "I thought they [Cork] were excellent though as well. I thought they were very well set up and were extremely, extremely sharp, full of energy, very aggressive, and they were the better team throughout.

"There's lads in that dressing-room 5/6/7 years. There's more in this group, unquestionably." Dublin manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin spoke to RTÉ Sport after his side's semi-final defeat.

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"I thought we were actually in with a chance in the first-half. I think the shot count, there was just one or two in it at half-time. Obviously, the goals gave them a great cushion. We had a couple of goalscoring opportunities and hit the crossbar, and things like that. Everything had to go right for us to be still in it.

"Second-half, I thought we rallied at one or two stages, but the fifth goal was just a killer and knocked the wind out of our sails.

"I thought we showed a good bit of fight to get back into it a couple of times, but it felt like each time we did that there was a sucker punch of a goal."