Dublin learned a lot but so too did the competition

“I saw that the Tour de France wasn’t decided by Gods or genes; it was decided by effort, by strategy. Whoever worked the hardest and the smartest was going to win.”
Isn’t this true of any sport? Meath produced the effort and strategy for 35 minutes and went into the changing room with a two-point cushion and an optimistic air about them. The problem, of course, is that no-one believed they would actually keep that level of performance going. Is it possible that Meath also had this mindset?