Dejected Kilkenny boss Niall Bergin left to rue missed opportunity in All-Ireland Minor Final

There was no hiding away from the disappointing feeling that Kilkenny Minor Boss Niall Bergin felt after Saturday’s All-Ireland minor final.

The O’Loughlin Gaels man was almost lost for words as he tried to sum up his side’s defeat to Tipperary.

“I’m absolutely gutted to be honest,” he said. “It’s hard to get your head around the circumstances.

“It was 15 players against 13 and we should be winning the game but we didn’t - it’s very disappointing.

“Fair play to Tipperary obviously, but we just didn’t take our chances and they fought back.

“Maybe with it being 15 against 13, lads just passed on their men or whatever and did not take the full responsibility but that stops with the management, that’s for sure.”

After the two red cards, Kilkenny used Jack Dollard as their main sweeper in defence and while they tried to push higher up the field at stages, things just didn’t click for the Cats.

“We pushed a player up with 15 minutes to go and had three across the middle of the field but it just didn’t happen for us.

“Tipp withdrew lads to leave spare players back and maybe we could have done things differently but that’s just looking at it in hindsight,” Bergin added.

“When a lad gets sent off it’s strange and it can galvanise a team and sometimes it happens that the team with 15 drop their guard a little bit and I think that’s what happened today.

“I thought we started ok when it was 15 on 15 and subconsciously the lads maybe thought it was job done with the two red cards and we probably passed things on more than what we’d normally do.

“The management will take full responsibility for what happened on the field and it’s just disappointing to end like that.”

Despite the hurt of defeat and the manner of it, the primary school principal can still look back on a Leinster Championship success and with a huge number of players still underage again next year, he forecasts a bright future for the Kilkenny youngsters.

“These boys are only learning, they are just 15, 16 and 17 years of age and they’ll have brighter days for Kilkenny as they are great chaps.

“I wouldn’t like anyone to pass judgement on those players and they’ll have a bright future both on and off the field.”