Derek Lyng's final message to fans as he departs as Kilkenny manager
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Kilkenny exited the Leinster Championship in May for the first time in their history
In what now has become his final message to Kilkenny supporters as manager, outgoing Cats boss Derek Lyng promised brighter days lie ahead for the county.
Lyng’s four year tenure came to an end following their Leinster Championship exit at the hands of Dublin, with the Emeralds man formally standing down on Tuesday evening.
Shortly after the Dublin defeat, Lyng vowed Kilkenny will ‘come back stronger’ and “win All-Irelands again.”
“It has been very much up and down. The one thing I will say, I probably had an idea it was going to be a tough year if I'm honest,” Lyng told the media after the match.
“We've obviously lost a good bit of experience, and we've had a few players from the start of the year coming back from injuries as well that we could have done with, but we introduced a lot of younger players and I have no doubt that there's a big future ahead of a lot of those players inside, but this year it's a steep learning curve.
“I've been saying it for the last few years, when we were winning Leinsters we were told that it's easy. It was never easy,” he continued.
“Kilkenny are going to win All-Irelands again, I've no doubt about that. I think there's a bit of work to be done there across the board. Like I said to you, a lot of players who got runs this year, that will certainly stand to them. They'll be in a much better place to start the season off next year, no question about it,” the Kilkenny boss explained.
“There's a lot of experience, and we probably didn't have a little bit of luck with injuries this year, but it's not an excuse. Obviously, our minors are still involved, our 20s were knocked out during the week, so it is a disappointing run for Kilkenny, and we can't dress it up. We have to confront reality, and the hard work needs to continue at underage, and we need to kind of drive that forward.
“Kilkenny will win All-Irelands again, and we're going to have to just get our heads down, and we have to keep working at that.
“We have to take this one on the chin, unfortunately, it hasn't been good enough this year, and a lot of work will need to go in and continue over the next few years to make sure that we get back to the top,” the Emeralds man firmly stated.
“It's about what we do now, it's what the group does now. What we do in terms of our structures and everything else, we have to look at it. We haven't been producing winning teams at underage level for a while now.
“You're trying to be part of the solution. It's never easy. But I know there are a lot of people in Kilkenny who are putting their shoulders to the wheel to make sure that we're going to come back stronger.
“We will come back stronger. We will win All-Irelands again. Unfortunately, it's not going to be this year,” he said, adding, “we introduced a lot of players this year. They're going to be there, and no doubt they'll have a serious say next year.”