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'We compete, and we compete to our ability': Kilkenny footballers come to terms with Louth hammering

Louth ran up a cricket score of 6-34 to 0-02 against Kilkenny in the Leinster U21 Football Championship last night.

KILKENNYโ€™S FOOTBALLERS LIVED through a nightmare in Ballyragget last night as Louth racked up a 50-point win in the Leinster U21 Football Championship.

Fourteen of the Wee Countyโ€™s side got their name on the scoresheet as Louth raced into a 1-21 to 0-00 lead at half-time, and eventually won by a massive 6-34 to 0-02, the Irish Examiner reports.

Kilkennyโ€™s cause wasnโ€™t helped when a number of a number of players withdrew in the hours leading up to the game, leaving the Cats with a bare minimum of 15 players and no substitutes.

But speaking to TheScore.ie this morning, Tom Duggan, vice chairman of the Kilkenny football board, said that he couldnโ€™t find fault with the players who did pull on the jersey last night.

โ€œWe had so many players listed to travel to play the game and they were caught up with exams, they were caught up with colleges, they were caught up with hurling, this type of thing.

โ€œWe werenโ€™t aware of it at all. I contacted a couple of players to see if they were available and when I contacted them, they werenโ€™t available. Work and exams come before a lot of things in this day and age.

We had 15. We had a team, and that team played to the best of their ability. I wouldnโ€™t have one negative word to say about that team or the management of that team.

Louth manager Colin Kelly spoke with the Kilkenny players in their dressing room afterwards and encouraged them to โ€œstick at itโ€, but Duggan was quick to wonder why Kellyโ€™s players were so intent on piling on the pain.

โ€œIf we were playing them in hurling, we wouldnโ€™t go to town on Louth as they did on us. Up to the 60th minute, they were still going for goals. Only for the effectiveness of our goalkeeper, we couldโ€™ve been down by an awful lot more.โ€

On a morning when the scoreline screamed disaster, Duggan was able to focus on the few positives from last nightโ€™s game.

โ€œItโ€™s not a big deal, everybody knows Kilkenny football. And if they donโ€™t know Kilkenny football, they donโ€™t know anything about sport.

When you look at the 15 guys who were there last night after the match, ok they were disheartened alright but theyโ€™ll be back to play football again.

You get a lot of negative press about this kind of thing, but weโ€™re there, we compete, and we compete to our ability.

โ€œItโ€™s the same in the National Football League. They go out there and when they come off the pitch and back onto the bus, [they're asking] when are we playing next.โ€

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    Mute Clare
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    Aug 10th 2011, 2:37 PM

    Great piece Niall, but there are a couple of other points here.

    If, for example, Kenny Egan was to travel to Baku, he could qualify for the Olympics, and would do so in the same weight division as Joe Ward. As a country can only enter one fighter in any weight class, as far as Iโ€™m aware, Ward could then not even compete in Istanbul and his Olympic dreams would be dashed, even though he is European Champion. This is the same for any of our โ€˜starsโ€™ who miss out.

    Also, if IABA were to send Ward and Moylette, the European champions would be seeded and thus get an easier draw. If they send other boxers in the same weight classes, that seeding is lost.

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    Mute Niall Kelly
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    Aug 10th 2011, 3:00 PM

    Thanks for the comments Gavin.

    I see Kenny has declared that heโ€™s stepping up to Heavyweight for this weekโ€™s competition, which was presumably decided in order to avoid the clash with Ward that you mentioned. Itโ€™ll be interesting to see how it all plays out over the next week.

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