Jim Gavin defended Dublin's discipline after yesterday's O'Byrne Cup final victory over Kildare.

The Leinster champions had six players yellow-carded, Jonny Cooper was black-carded, while Michael Darragh Macauley received a straight red card for lashing out at opponent Gary White at the end of normal time. By contrast, Kildare had just one player yellow-carded (full back Ciaran Fitzpatrick).

"I'm very happy with our discipline," the Dublin manager insisted in the Irish Daily Star.

"I need to look back at the tape and how the referee viewed some of those black cards and some of the other cards that he gave us.

"But it was swings and roundabouts, Kevin (McManamon) went through for a goal, was pulled down. You could argue the toss that cards can be given out there as well. We just get on with it."

Gavin agreed that playing extra-time was not ideal with the start of the Allianz League just a week away.

"I don't think either of us would be happy, Jason (Ryan) and I had a quick chat at the final whistle, and we both said 'that's not ideal for next week, to be honest'. We both have fairly competitive games.

"We've used these games as part of our fitness programme so we'll just have to keep an eye on the load during the week and hopefully we'll have fresh legs."

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