Damian McErlain felt Kerry's greater physicality was the decisive factor in their All-Ireland MFC semi-final victory over Derry.

And McErlain believes the Oak Leaf County will need to put a greater emphasis on strength and conditioning if they're to compete for the Tom Markham Cup in the future.

The Derry manager said in the Irish News: "These lads have shown great character and great work ethic to get this far and they've put a bit of pride back in the Derry jersey at minor level.

"Hopefully it's given them a bit of incentive to do the work to compete at U21 and senior level, but there are a whole lot of things that need to happen in Derry before we get a stream of success.

"This team has basically got here with one year's work. At the minute, the development squad structures aren't what they need to be. They aren't what they are in Kerry.

"Just looking at the Kerry lads when they took off their shirts at the end of the game, you know that there's physical development going on there that certainly hasn't happened in our county."

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