Kieran Joyce repaid Kilkenny manager Brian Cody's faith in him with a magnificent display at Croke Park this evening.

Eyebrows were raised when Joyce was called up at centre back in place of Brian Hogan, but just like Walter Walsh two years ago, he proved to be the Cats' trump card and received the RTE Man of the Match award after putting the shackles on Patrick 'Bonnar' Maher.

"I'm delighted to win to be honest," he said on RTE.

"There were a couple of fantastic performances from all our players out there today. I was hoping to start all year as nay player would and I lucky enough I got the call today and you just give it your all and thankfully you're on the winning side.

"We knew we had to be very tight. They broke through once or twice, but lucky enough we held out in the end."

Tweet

Most Read Stories