For Kerry's prospects, it’s crucial Éamonn Fitzmaurice remains at the helm

For all the plaudits — dangerous ones before a final — swirling around Peter Keane’s Kerry minors, few in the Kingdom were looking to teenagers for succour yesterday.

The first refuge of an honest defeated team is the mirror, and self-flagellation is often the torture of choice. There is little doubt Dublin were the better team in Sunday’s dramatic All-Ireland semi-final but Kerry had the situations and opportunities to beat them. That will hurt Kerry folk for a while, and Éamonn Fitzmaurice a while longer.

Fitzmaurice doesn’t require Sunday’s curtain-raiser to recognise the flush of talent coming through in his county; he’s been at the core of it with schools and U21s. But he’ll have chewed a lot of the winter before long-term prospects figure in his thoughts.