No excuses in the studio as pundits dish out the Sunday blame

IN THE chaos of the aftermath, analysis listed this way and that — a mirror image of the match itself.

Kerry, insisted Pat Spillane, had no excuses “beaten by a better team, a team that wanted it more”.

Fair enough, you might say.

Except Pat was also adamant Kerry will “have to admit to themselves that they blew an All-Ireland final”.

The “tired minds”. The “tired bodies”. The “wrong decision-making”. The “sloppy passing”. And the “kamikaze tactics” of “short passing to fellows stationary”. And all of that in just the Kerry build-up to Dublin’s goal. But no excuses, like.

And now that Pat’s got a taste of Dublin winning All-Irelands, seems he wants more.

“It is important,” he said, “to capitalise on the hype and euphoria about Dublin. Too many of our role models are from other sports.”

Which struck us as a loose ball likely to attract Brolly’s attention. Sure enough, the man whose first contribution to the afternoon was to place a fraternal right hand on Pat’s left knee, was quick to pounce.

“We have no difficulty with role models in the GAA, Pat,” cut in Joe.

Pat wasn’t letting go. “Media hype is what excites youngsters,” he boomed. And you can’t argue with that: for the summer give them football and hurling, and Randy Rocks for the long evenings.

As Joe and Pat had their usual bouts of sparring, Colm O’Rourke adopted a more patrician approach, and observed on more than one occasion that every player “has to turn his own page of history” — in the spirit of the analogy, we say Stephen Cluxton wrote a modern-day Book of Kells in one swish.

But, anyway, enough unimportant stuff, who won? Well, ultimately, O’Rourke got it right, though you couldn’t describe his prediction as anything other than half-hearted.

While he said it was “easy to make a case for Kerry,” he went for Dublin to turn the page of history.

Joe Brolly opted for the team-talk, each-way bet style of forecasting: “If they play well, they might…” was his opening equivocation, and he submitted a few more, including the fearless “if they don’t, they might lose”, before coming down on what might be charitably termed a nod for Dublin.

Anyway, there they were, the three of them talking about how Dublin deserved it, until Michael Lyster revealed an unhelpful fact. When Gooch put four up in the final 10 minutes, he had written “Gooch seals it” in his notebook.

“We all said the game was over,” confirmed O’Rourke, and, later, “all of us here were saying Kerry were cruising home.”

We could see it alright. Smug heads. Knowing nods. “Ah, Dublin haven’t got it, Kerry burning them off now, turning the screw, quality always outs, same old, same old, suspected it all along.”

That’s the way it was in our house, anyway, and we fancy it wasn’t much different in the studio.

Thoughts turned to Pat Gilroy.

O’Rourke raised the vexed question of how “often times we have sort of derided them [Dublin] here on The Sunday Game”. Spillane sought to pay Gilroy the ultimate tribute: “Gilroy and Dublin,” he said, “they took it on board.”

Brolly presented himself as an improbable advocate for punditry modesty when, in the interests of prolonging the spat which has characterised the entire summer of coverage, lectured the Templenoe legend: “I don’t really think they care what we think about them. This is not about you [Pat] on this occasion.”

On one point, Spillane remained unshakeable all afternoon. “One of the poorest subs benches that has ever sat in an All-Ireland final for Kerry,” he said beforehand.

It was a theme he returned to afterwards, in the shadow of the impact Dublin sub Kevin McManamon had on the game: “Kerry don’t have a subs bench, bar Paul Galvin,” lamented Spillane.

But no excuses. “Unbelievable belief,” was Michael Dara McAuley’s challenging summary. Yep, that’s that’s the x-factor. Just ask Randy Rocks. Bet he was in Coppers too.