By Niall Gartland

THE old cliché goes that losing an All-Ireland semi-final is even worse than losing a final, but Sleacht Néill boss Michael McShane says his players are more determined than ever after their third such defeat in four years.

The Sleacht Néill  hurlers nearly made heroes of themselves with a magnificent showing against Kilkenny team Ballyhale in Sunday’s semi-final, but ultimately fell short on a scoreline of 2-24 to 2-19.

They earned praise across Ireland for their performance, and Michael McShane says the players themselves can’t wait to go at it again in 2020.

“The changing room was a very quiet place after the game. We’d just lost an All-Ireland semi-final, and we’d emptied the tank and the boys. were exhausted.

“But we went for a meal afterwards and had a few drinks and sat together and we chatted, and whilst there was disappointment there was definitely a realisation that we’re as good as anyone in Ireland.

“The parting shot when we went to go our separate ways on Sunday evening was ‘2020, bring it on’, the players are looking forward to it already.”

McShane says he couldn’t have asked any more of his team, but they’re a massively ambitious club (as if you didn’t already know), so there’s still disappointment that they fell at the penultimate hurdle once more.

“We were against the reigning All-Ireland champions and they’re All-Ireland champions for a reason. We took it right to the wire, and by their own admission afterwards, they had to play as well as they have played in the last couple of years, so we did a lot of things right.

“We asked them to empty the tank and they did. We were going hammer and tongs at it right to the last minute. We’re very proud of the lads, we’re proud but not satisfied as the saying goes.

“We showed the whole country that we’re a serious hurling team, there’s lads on my team who if they were born in Tipperary or Kilkenny would have a pocketful of All-Ireland medals.

“They’re every bit as good as anyone else in the country. We rightly got a lot of praise in the last 48 hours but we didn’t win and as a group of players and management we’re still disappointed because we want to win an All-Ireland.”

McShane doesn’t know himself whether he’ll be back again for a sixth year in charge of Sleacht Néill , but he definitely won’t be taking any rash decisions.

“I haven’t committed yet but I haven’t said no either. I’ll sit down with the club in a few weeks and have a chat about it. I took my time to make a decision after losing to Ballycran last year and I’m glad I did because on the day I thought it was time to move on, but I made the right decision to stay and I think we went to another level this year.”

McShane also believes that there’s still room for improvement even after reaching such a high level performance against the reigning All-Ireland champions.

“I’m looking at my team and as well as we played I know there’s things we can do better. The difference between us and them on Sunday was that we got punished when we made any small mistake at all.

“The only wide they hit in the second-half was the last free TJ Reid took. What you’ve got to do at that top level is absolutely cut out your mistakes and that’s something we have to work on. The average age of the team is only 24, the guys can become better hurlers and there’s lots of stuff I know we can do to improve.”