Monday morning following a terrible beating by Kilkenny is not the ideal interview for Gary Maguire to have to give. The Dublin goalkeeper is currently second choice in the eyes of county manager Ger Cunningham. A strange situation considering Conor Dooley was his understudy at their club Ballyboden St Enda's.

The situation was hardly improved in the wake of Saturday’s 1-25 to 0-16 trimming in Portlaoise when the recently retired Conal Keaney, another Ballyboden man, tweeted: “Tactical a shambles tonight Dublin need all their best hurlers playing to compete (sic).”

Maguire, talking at the the YUKO Toyota Car Club launch, nimbly dealt with this awkward moment.

“Yeah, I heard about [(the tweet),” he said. “I read it in the paper, not on Twitter.

"Obviously it's his opinion. He's well entitled to his opinion. He's probably done more for Dublin hurling than anyone, really, in the recent past. But look, we can't influence what people outside the squad are going to say. I don't know – maybe he was looking for a Sunday Game spot. The new Joe Brolly! I don't know.But I wouldn't take it too seriously."

But the point remains. After comfortably seeing off Wexford, Dublin were badly exposed by Kilkenny. It made many people bemoan the absence of a Schutte brother – Mark pulled his calf, Paul broke his finger – while 24-year-old All Star Danny Sutcliffe walked away this season.

The lack of such men told against a dominant Kilkenny.

"I would probably pick out Paul Murphy, " said Maguire. "He's probably did the most damage. Right through their team they were really up for it. You could see it. Like, Cillian Buckley and Padraig Walsh coming up to get scores. That really set down the gauntlet.

“We were confident that we were going to take Kilkenny but the second half was just a bit of a no-show from us. Because at half-time, we were well in the game.

“Just the first 10 minutes after half-time, Kilkenny got on top. If we broke even in that period, it could have been a different second half. But for those first 10 minutes, it was a bit of a disaster. And it just kept coming in on top of the full-back line and the half backs. I thought the backs were good.

“We probably struggled a bit under the high ball. That’s where Kilkenny really overpowered us and ultimately took a stranglehold.”