False modesty may be something Jim Gavin can occasionally leave himself open to being accused of, but no such thing is at play when he insists that Kevin Heffernan’s team of the 70s will always hold pride of place in the Dublin football pantheon.

Dublin defender Philly McMahon has come out fighting in the face of All-Ireland final eye-gouging accusations, insisting he didn’t do it and stating he doesn’t ‘give a s**t’ what his critics think.

Eamonn Fitzmaurice will continue as Kerry senior football manager into 2016.

IF IT wasn’t so serious the irony would be delicious. Two legal eagles shooting down a ban, which had been upheld by the GAA’s three main disciplinary arms, largely on the basis that an All-Ireland semi-final means more than most games.

Sunday’s All-Ireland football final was indicative of the summer’s championship; promised much, delivered little. Joe Kernan, Colman Corrigan, John O’Leary and Seamus McEnaney reflect on a disappointing year for football and suggest what corrective surgery must be embarked on ahead of 2016...

I know I’m not alone when I say this All-Ireland final was far from a classic as you could possibly imagine.

Dublin 0-12 Kerry 0-9: Back in February, Paul Flynn made a daring comment about last season. Despite finishing a distant second to runners-up Donegal in an All-Ireland semi-final, he was adamant about who he felt were the finest outfit in 2014. And he wasn’t talking about Kerry.

Cian O’Sullivan. He’s playing but is he fit? Will he last the match? Will he even last the first half? Eeek.

Michael Darragh Macauley wasn’t wearing comparisons with the great Dublin teams of the seventies after yesterday’s win over Kerry — ‘we’re nowhere near those boys’ was his take on how the current Dublin team compare with Heffo’s Dubs.

“Out-thought, outworked, and outfought,” conceded Éamonn Fitzmaurice.

Is it possible that people have ran out of things to say about Dublin v Kerry? Even on Up for the Match, where the tolerance for cliché is high, they looked a touch jaded by it all.

As always after an All-Ireland final, the stories come out bit by bit. The personal challenges. The obstacles that have been overcome.

So there we have it, another season finishes with Dublin as All-Ireland champions...

A day from the heavens alright, if not from football’s gods. They’ve been especially stingy in 2015.

A forgetable final they’ll remember in Dublin.

A third championship defeat in five seasons to Dublin is unthinkable for Kerry...

It’s become a feature of both Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s and Jim Gavin’s reigns that they tend not to select Under 21 players for big matches. It begs the question, why not?

JIM Gavin recognised the trap even before it had been fully laid.

Kerry bid for their second back-to-back All-Ireland in less than a decade tomorrow at Croke Park, but you’d have got long odds on that in 2012 after they’d lost a quarter-final to Donegal. No-one was putting their hand up to replace Jack O’Connor, something Kerry GAA chairman Patrick O’Sullivan recognised better than most. So what’s changed? And how much longer can the Kingdom stay top of the tree

Kerry trainer Cian O’Neill explains to Michael Moynihan the philosophies behind success...

For a dozen seasons, Tom O’Sullivan filled the back pages with defensive exploits. Last month, he made the front pages for doing his day job. Life has never been ordinary for one of Kerry’s enigmatic heroes

1. Are Dublin and Kerry as classy as they are made out to be or are they just cleverer when it comes to the dark arts?

For one reason or another - even by their absence, or off the bench, this sextet will have a decisive bearing on the destination of Sam Maguire

Dublin are on the verge of winning their eighth title out of an available nine since Jim Gavin became their general,with another clean sweep of league, Leinster and possibly All-Ireland. We track their scoring and appearance records and crunch the numbers to find some interesting trends.

Dublin centre-back Cian O’Sullivan has been named in Jim Gavin’s starting line-up for Sunday…

John Sheehan can still picture the scene. A few hours after missing a penalty in an underage match, his son Bryan spent the afternoon practicing spot-kicks in the garden of their Cahirciveen home oblivious to the sheets of rain.

Bryan Cullen believes the longer Alan Brogan is on the pitch this Sunday the better the chances of Dublin claiming their third All-Ireland in five seasons.

Former Tyrone star Brian McGuigan claims Kerry would have won the 2011 All-Ireland final had Eamonn Fitzmaurice been in charge of them.

Jim Gavin believes the GAA should seriously consider the introduction of a Television Match Officials to help police Gaelic games, but only on the proviso that it be made available in all four provinces.

Some call it explosiveness, others say it’s momentum. Whatever it is, Dublin and Kerry have it, though Eamonn Fitzmaurice would have it known that it’s Dublin who possess the lion’s share.

“The achievements of an organisation are the results of the combined effort of each individual... Individual commitment to a group effort— that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilisation work.” —Vince Lombardi

Barry Cahill believes Paddy Andrews’ fine performance against Mayo in last Saturday week’s semi-final replay has given Eamonn Fitzmaurice something extra to think about on Sunday.

February 2011 and Dublin have beaten Cork by six points. Under the Hogan Stand, Pat Gilroy is quietly praising his team for getting their discipline in check in the second half, but his calm words betray his delight. Inside he’s dancing.

Forcing Dublin goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton to abandon his trademark short kick-out will be central to Kerry’s back-to-back All-Ireland bid, according to Darragh Ó Sé.

Few managers are better placed than Eamonn Fitzmaurice to gauge the benefits of an All-Ireland semi-final replay.

It’s 2002, late summer. Alan Brogan has been everywhere all championship. His emergence onto a Dublin team swaggering through Leinster under Tommy Lyons has captivated a public drawn in further by his famous dad Bernard and the bridge it builds to the glorious ’70s.

They denied him a second All-Ireland winners’ medal last September but Karl Lacey still hasn’t seen enough from Kerry to make him think they will overcome Dublin in this year’s final.

Dublin selector Declan Darcy has admitted they face a testing week to select their All-Ireland final team but insisted they won’t be clouded by ‘nostalgia’ when making the big calls.

So, what do the All Blacks who departed Auckland airport a few days ago for Rugby World Cup 2015 and the Kerry footballers who will set off for Dublin on Saturday for this year’s All Ireland Football Final have in common?

Former Kerry manager Jack O’Connor believes Jim Gavin has no more tricks left up his sleeve after Dublin had to play all their trump cards to defeat Mayo in a replay.

Former Kerry defender Stephen Stack believes that Kingdom manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice will “pick two teams” for the All-Ireland final.

Cian O’Sullivan may have been helped off the field after Dublin’s semi-final replay victory over Mayo last Sunday, but Jim Gavin was bullish yesterday about the centre-back’s prospects of facing Kerry in the All-Ireland final.

Ever since an early morning conversation with Jim Gavin last year, I have been totally and utterly convinced Dublin are going to win this year’s All-Ireland title.

Earlier in the summer, after the Munster final replay between Kerry and Cork, I highlighted championship games with a short one-week turnaround are where managers and coaches earn their crust.