By any measure, Dublin are yards ahead

Afterwards there were tales of rape and pillage, of drug tests in dungeons. But the 11-point winning margin for Dublin in yesterday’s League Division 1 final is as good a metric as any by which to fire the engines of the summer scrimmage.

How far are Kerry, football’s No 1 challenger, behind the undisputed and long unbeaten champions? And beyond the Munster champions, how far back are the pack? Dublin are now 22 competitive games without a loss, 20 of them wins. They are lean and athletic and the only thing outside a laboratory setting Jim Gavin must concern himself with is appetite. There was nothing to indicate complacency is an issue as things stand. “That is not a language we use,” he said last night.

For as long as yesterday’s Allianz League final retained its full complement of players on the pitch, Kerry provided the now four-in- a-row League champions with some worthwhile problems. Kerry’s structure was good and defensively they have developed the football form of rugby’s choke tackle behind the closed gates of wherever was dry enough to train in winter and spring.