Donegal captain Michael Murphy has suggested he was the victim when he was controversially sent off with John Small last weekend.

Ulster secretary Brian McAvoy’s innovative suggestion last month didn’t receive a fraction of the attention it deserved, writes John Fogarty.

A familiar theme of coming from behind and simply refusing to accept defeat played out again at Croke Park where Dublin suckered Donegal with a late onslaught to steal a narrow Allianz League win.

Forewarned they were, but Mayo were powerless to prevent yet another third-quarter burst extending the county’s miserable run against Dublin.

Dublin this evening extended their unbeaten run against Mayo to 16 games.

Peter Keane’s Kerry have coughed up late leads and drawn with Dublin in two of their last three games; last year’s All-Ireland final stalemate and Saturday’s Allianz League opener which ended 1-19 apiece.

The former Dublin forward managed his county 48 times in the Championship and a further 59 times in the National League, bringing his grand total to 107.

Anybody fortunate enough to be in Croke Park last Saturday evening, well, anybody from Dublin and the vast majority of neutrals, will have a cherished memory forever, writes Peter McNamara.

Stephen Cluxton (Parnells): If this is his final bow, what better way to do it? Kerry didn’t make his life too difficult as he restarted but he was still varying his kick-outs well. His save from Stephen O’Brien was an easy one but he was so good with the high ball that came his way. 7

John Fogarty asks what previous All-Ireland final replays can tell us about Saturday’s game?

When trying to predict which player or players could have a really serious impact on the All-Ireland SFC final replay, one man keeps on springing to mind having watched the drawn encounter back in full, writes Peter McNamara.

To curve or to swerve — that is the question.

Bernard Brogan is one of the founders of Peptalk, a corporate well-being company that counts big businesses like Coca-Cola, Zurich and Northern Trust as clients.

We don’t exactly know what’s going to happen on September 14 but we figure there is a better chance of predicting what won’t

David Gough was the right man for this All-Ireland final — I maintained that from a good bit out — and seeing him give one of the best refereeing displays in a football final wasn’t unexpected.

The GAA are in line to make close to €4m from the All-Ireland final replay between Dublin and Kerry on September 14.

In the 2017 Division 1 final, Kerry brought Dublin’s 36-game unbeaten record across League and Championship to an end. Next Sunday, they aim to prevent Jim Gavin’s men from extending their defeat-less Championship run to 36. Thirty-three Championship wins and two draws have brought Dublin to the brink of creating GAA history. Here are 15 facts and figures behind their remarkable five-in-a-row tilt:

You imagine as the Kerry party left Croke Park yesterday evening they were preparing a case for the defence of Stephen O’Brien.

Getting the match-ups right has gone a long way for Kerry and Mayo in recent years. We think of Aidan O’Mahony on Michael Murphy in the 2014 final, Lee Keegan on Enda Smith in the 2017 All-Ireland quarter-final replay and just last weekend Patrick Durcan tagging Ryan McHugh.

Former Cork footballer Colm O’Neill sees no reason why five or six of the county’s All-Ireland U20 winning team can’t make the step up to senior level in 2020.

If Meath’s Michael Newman had swapped jerseys with Niall Scully before the start of yesterday’s Leinster final, then all six starting Dublin forwards would have been on the scoresheet.

As Jim Gavin post-match critiques go, his take on his team’s performance that conspired to knock them out of the reckoning for a seventh consecutive Division 1 final was withering: “That performance will obviously not help the players that were out on the pitch, that’s for sur.”

Despite playing the last 25 minutes with 14 men, Tyrone picked up their first win over Dublin in six years as the All-Ireland lost three round games for the first time in Jim Gavin’s reign.

Dublin hardly expected Monaghan to roll out the red carpet for them on Sunday but when the home side chose not to provide them with a guard of honour the visitors knew for sure they were in for a testing afternoon, writes John Fogarty.

No harm for Monaghan to remind Dublin that they have their number at these early junctures. No harm for the champions either to be told that in this season of all seasons there is going to be gristle. The physical soreness they feel today after this niggly clash will serve them well for what lies ahead.

Dublin 2-17 Tyrone 1-14

Margin of error is something a lot of observers don’t consider when analysing a referee’s performance. Refs don’t go out with a plan to make mistakes but neither do they believe they are going to get everything 100% correct.

For me, this current Dublin team is the best ever and even now — a year out — there’s almost a certain inevitability about the five in a row.

When Cork exited the championship in early July, Leesiders’ football interest moved from supporting our own to the ABK camp.

Jim Gavin dug deep into his all-conquering Dublin panel with impressive consequences as the three-in-a-row All-Ireland winners signed off on their Super 8s campaign in style.

Jim Gavin’s arithmetic is sharp. Either that or his advice is solid.

Dublin might have greater home comfort than any other side in the Super 8, but they will have one less day to prepare for their All-Ireland semi-final than their opponents should they top Group 2.

As has been their habit since the innocent summer of 2011, the Mayo football team hasn’t been short of takers lining up to bury and praise them in recent days.

A Stephen Cluxton-less Dublin turned in a fine second-half showing to easily see off Laois to claim the county’s eighth Leinster SFC title in a row.

It was the cheer that gave birth to a torrent of sneers.

It isn’t so long since Alan Brogan and others were speculating as to whether Stephen Cluxton’s guardianship of the Dublin nets would stretch past the quiet one’s 40th birthday.

The legend of Tipperary’s historic All-Ireland minor football success has multiplied with time.

The social media maxim began to gain traction around 2011 and, for a few years, was beloved of the Breffni faithful.

MONAGHAN 2-12 DUBLIN 0-17: In the end, we were given a dramatic conclusion rarely in keeping with the general tedium of events as Fintan Kelly fired over a glorious point deep into injury-time to secure a noteworthy success for Monaghan against the All-Ireland champions.

An insipid Dublin SFC final was decided by the simple fact St Vincent’s weren’t as poor as their opponents.

No club has done more to make Dublin great yet, closer to home, Ballymun Kickhams have done surprisingly little to help themselves.

Yet again the spin of the roulette table came up black when Andy Moran had put everything on red but you wouldn’t know it by his demeanour.

For the first time in the history of the PwC All-Stars, there are four candidates for the footballer of the year including two goalkeepers, David Clarke and Stephen Cluxton, writes John Fogarty.

For the first time in the history of the PwC All-Stars, there are four candidates for the footballer of the year including two goalkeepers, David Clarke and Stephen Cluxton.

Lee Keegan and Eoghan O’Gara could join Donie Vaughan on the sidelines for the first round of next year’s Allianz League.

Strange days. The RTÉ panel, not exactly a trio of giggly teenage girls at the best of times, are being sexist. Male-on-male sexist, that is.

Before considering the wreath and awkward handshake for the Mayo post-mortem, consider perhaps a microscope and tweezers. We’re down to the smallest margins here.