Brendan Hackett has challenged his players to at least reach the All-Ireland final after Kildare captured their third Leinster minor football title in four years.

The Lilywhites were impressive 1-18 to 0-10 winners over Laois in yesterday's Croke Park curtain-raiser and their manager noted: "Kildare have never won an All-Ireland which is a shame but, look, it would be just nice to get to the final and to be back here again for that.

"I'm delighted for the players and I'm delighted for the people who are involved and have put a lot of work in. Personally I'm delighted as well.

"As I say, and I've said it often, it's players that win games. They're the ones that are out there that make the decisions, they execute it and I just thought they were excellent today. A final is always a tense kind of a day, sometimes there is a lot more mistakes than you would have in other matches but 1-18 is a great score, and then keeping them tight at the other end. I don't think they had a shot at goal, it was super. There was a couple of fantastic catches in midfield, so all around it was a pleasing performance.

"I'm just so proud of them. You can do all the work away from the scene, but they have to go out and execute it," added the former Westmeath senior boss, whose side will face Mayo in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

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