Plenty of f’s and effort in Saturday night slugfest

It didn’t require a trained lip-reader to decipher the sentiments of the Kerry players at the final whistle in Tralee, two words repeated and rhyming with book it.

It’s not like the home side didn’t emerge with positives, but in the metric of these things, the lost opportunity to spike Dublin’s hard-shelled confidence for the next high-stakes duel dilutes them somewhat.

That said, perspective is paramount: Would Éamonn Fitzmaurice prefer to end Dublin’s unbeaten record or the tenancy of Sam Maguire in the capital?