Monday's GAA In The Papers

Catch up on all the latest news, views and GAA-related rumours in www.gaa.ie's latest daily feature, GAA In the Papers.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Ulster manager Joe Kernan was delighted after his side’s defeat of Munster in the M. Donnelly GAA Footballl Interprovincial final at the Morgan Athletic Grounds.

"We gave the boys the freedom to go out and play but they had to have a responsibility and couldn’t be kamikaze,” said Kernan.

"They did that and they worked for each other — when somebody went up, somebody covered. The ball that Darren Hughes broke to win the ball for the winning goal ... bad players don’t win them balls — wholehearted players do and it just epitomised what the boys were like all day."

Another manager with a lot to cheer about was Galway’s Anthony Cunningham, who steered his young side to an impressive seven-point defeat of Dublin in the Allianz League.

"We are delighted, a new management and practically a new team and to get over the line the first day out is great,” he told the Irish Examiner.

"We have worked hard for the last couple of months but we probably have a lot to do.

"It was a typical first game of the league, with the first touch off slightly. But it was great to get over the physical battle, that was what pleased us most as Dublin are a very physical side. But it is no more than two points and we won’t be getting carried away.”

Dublin manager Anthony Daly admitted in the Irish Times that his side had failed to fire in Pearse Stadium.

“Well, when in the context of last year’s league we played better in nearly every game than that so it was the worst. But yeah, it was a poor performance. I couldn’t call it anything else,” he said.

Clare manager Davy Fitzgerald was again warning people against getting carried away with his side’s impressive defeat of Limerick on Saturday night.

“It’s only the first round of the league and there’s no point the people of Clare getting carried away,” Fitzgerald told the Irish Times. “All they can expect, and I said this from day one, is a hard-working team. We still have things to work on and we still will have dips but in the long run, the lads won’t be too far away but it’s going to take time.”

Meanwhile, Cork hurling boss Jimmy Barry-Murphy singled Conor Lehane out for special praise after the Midleton youngster scored seven points from play in the Rebels’ opening day win over Waterford.

"He was excellent," said Barry-Murphy in the Irish Examiner. "It wouldn’t take a genius to pick him for the team. He’s a major talent in Cork and people have seen that for the last couple of years. He was excellent."

One manager who was a lot more downbeat was Tipperary’s Declan Ryan, who conceded his side were second best to Kilkenny in their repeat of last year’s All-Ireland final at Nowlan Park.

"Very disappointed with that performance overall, absolutely," he told the Irish Independent. "The most disappointing thing is our lads have been training particularly hard in pre-season. But Kilkenny just looked a lot sharper."

His counterpart, Brian Cody, certainly wasn’t getting carried away with the win.

"Teams have had little chance to play much hurling so far so it was a decent standard overall. We got a good start and built on that. Tipp came at us and made a battle of it but our second goal gave us that bit of breathing space," said Cody, who was speaking to the Irish Independent.