Loughrea manager Tommy Kelly believes the red card saga surrounding Cullen Killeen took a heavy toll on the young midfielder as the Galway champions came up short against Ballygunner in the All-Ireland club SHC final.

Killeen was only cleared to play by the DRA last Friday night after an exhaustive appeals process in the wake of his controversial dismissal against Slaughtneil in the All-Ireland semi-final before Christmas.

“There was an awful lot of talk around will he play, will he not play. I was delighted he got to play, but I think the kid was tired today,” Kelly said in the Croke Park media room.

“He looked tired there in the second half, and I think it probably took an awful lot out of him. But he's a super, super guy, his attitude was just fantastic, and I couldn't speak any higher of Cullen or any of the Killeens or any of my players really, they're just fantastic men.”

Kelly was left to rue a number of missed chances in the first half which came back to haunt Loughrea after the restart.

“I think we were down at 40-something percent in the first half for conversion. We left a lot of scores behind. We needed to build a lead if we were going to have any chance,” Kelly continued.

“We still felt we were in a good position at half-time, we were winning a lot of dirty ball. They definitely turned the screw on us in the second half a little bit. We have a bit of learning to do after that one today, we have to get up to an awful lot higher than where we are.”

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