Browne happy to come through physical encounter as Two Mile House set sights on Leinster final

Two Mile House manager Niall Browne insists he was happy to see Courtwood bring a physical edge to Saturday afternoon’s Leinster Intermediate Football Championship semi-final.

Club stalwart Browne watched on as his side racked up another big score to eventually ease past the Laois champions on a 3-18 to 2-10 scoreline and seal their place in a Leinster final against Shamrocks of Offaly.

The first half saw plenty of blood and thunder challenges however, a number of which were either late, mistimed or purely erratic. There were plenty of sore bodies on the Two Mile House side by the time they entered the dressing room at half-time, but Browne was happy to see the game being played like that.

“I don’t mind about that,” he said afterwards.

“I have absolutely no problem about that. I am a believer that gaelic football is a fantastic game if you let the hits go in. The referee let the hits go in – there was nothing really overly dirty. We didn’t avoid contact when we should have, one or two times they got in a little bit late – perhaps we should have followed suit.”

It was a game that Two Mile House controlled from start to finish, with Courtwood never getting any closer than within three points of their opponents at any stage. There was some nervy bits of defending however which Browne insists his side will have to work on ahead of the Leinster final.

“I’d be lying to say I wasn’t a little bit worried because there was a good 20 minutes left. I just felt [we’d be fine] that if we got another point and just kind of take the energy out of it, and we managed to do that. The goals were very poor – we didn’t call, something we’re going to have to work on there.”

The physical toll of the game will leave some sore bodies during the week, one of which is captain Peter Kelly who was taken off at half-time as a precaution, while full-back William Burke suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury he initially got in the Leinster quarter-final.

Browne expects Kildare star Kelly to be fine however for the final.

“He probably could have played on, but look, we were 10 or 11 up at half-time and we have a Leinster final to think about, so we just took a calculated risk. We didn’t want to put him at risk, but he’ll be absolutely fine for the next day.”