Lack of killer instinct back to haunt Dublin

It seemed almost ludicrous to question the killer instinct of a side that had amassed 9-88 in four games this summer, but the suspicion that Dublin lacked a killer instinct was only confirmed at Croke Park yesterday.

Ever since their Leinster quarter-final defeat of Laois, Jim Gavin’s team had been leaving spurned goal chances littered behind them, golden nuggets under-valued at the time by the dominance they enjoyed in other sectors.

The cost of such carelessness was always going to skyrocket as the end games approached and so it proved with the inability of Bernard Brogan and Diarmuid Connolly to find the net when Dublin were dominating the first half.