Eamonn Kelly says Offaly treated their winner-takes-all Leinster SHC round-robin clash with Kerry like an All-Ireland final.

The Faithful avenged their surprise Allianz League Division 1B defeat to the Kingdom in Birr earlier this year with a hard-earned 3-19 to 0-20 victory which sets up a Leinster quarter-final at home to Laois in a fortnight's time.

"We knew that unless we were better than we were the year to date we weren't going to come out of this with a result. We prepared for this one as if it was an All Ireland because that's the respect we have for Kerry," the Offaly manager told RTE.

"They're a serious side and were very unlucky not to have Mikey Boyle here today, he was a harsh enough sending off the last day. Colm Harty was also missing and I know these fellas, they're good enough to hurl for any county."

The Tipperary native added: "We've lots of work on, but I think it's going in the right direction, we put up a good score today.

"We're delighted to be in a quarter-final, back here in Tullamore again in a couple of weeks' time and lads won't need any motivation for that."

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