Dubs’ delay in getting to grips with tactical battle almost cost them victory

What a brilliant game of football.

When expectation actually delivers suddenly everyone is surprised. Is there any better way to spend your Sunday than this? The ebb and flow of this game is hard to document on paper. How do you go about dissecting a game and do justice to the entertainment on display? What we expected from Kerry was a good start, some nice football and an honourable attempt to hold back the inevitable second half charge from Dublin. It was to be a day where the elder players would give their all and bow out gracefully knowing that a younger, faster, fitter Dublin team would take over. Instead, they delivered a superb team effort beyond what I had envisaged and in doing so nearly pulled off a massive shock.

In fairness to Eamonn Fitzmaurice he had a plan and it worked perfectly for 35 minutes. Key to this was the movement of the forwards. Kerry played with three full-forwards, two inside and one on the top of the ‘D’.