No disgrace to lose to Kilkenny but manner of defeat leaves us plenty to ponder

We’ve seen bad games this year, but this was the most boring.

Not because of Kilkenny, the greatest team we’ve ever seen, but because of the standard of the opposition. I can’t for the life of me understand how a team can train as hard as these players train, for six or seven months, and perform as badly as Dublin did in Portlaoise on Saturday evening.

I’m talking physically and mentally. They weren’t just brushed aside by Kilkenny, they gave in, and that’s surely the biggest disappointment for all their supporters, and for Anthony Daly particularly.

There had been so much talk about this game beforehand; I think everyone was looking forward to a tremendous contest, including Kilkenny people. Not alone was it not a good contest, it was a non-contest. Forget about Dublin as a team for a moment; every Dublin player seemed to opt out of every battle, from one end of the field to the other.

To be so far behind and to still be making the most basic errors, to see Dublin players still trying to run the ball through Kilkenny — stupid hurling.

Their touch was atrocious, their attitude was atrocious. It begs the question, did we all overrate them coming into this game? Remember, Dublin still have to win a competitive game this season.

I wonder, did Dublin overcook themselves on the training ground? Did they put themselves under so much pressure to be ready that they overdid it? Or, bigger question, are they just not good enough? I think a bit of both. Kilkenny looked far fresher, but Dublin’s touch also just wasn’t there. On a wet night, the kind of evening we had in Portlaoise on Saturday, that lack of skill becomes even more apparent.

Will there be a backlash now from the Dubs or will they — as happened to Dublin teams in the past — just fade away?

Less might be more for Dublin for the next few weeks. Spend time working on the heads rather than the bodies. They should know by now, in a championship game from the moment the whistle sounds, every ball is a battle. No better team to illustrate that than this Kilkenny team, and no better advert for Leinster hurling. The one hope I have is we’ll still get a Leinster final. Kilkenny will know better than anyone, this isn’t the game on which they’ll be judged, this isn’t even a game in which they’ll judge themselves. Galway will present a bigger challenge.