Dublin have edge on rough day for marquee men

Dublin and Kerry were expecting a good deal from their marquee forwards yesterday — the Diarmuid Connolly-Bernard Brogan axis in sky blue, and the threat posed by Colm Cooper and James O’Donoghue in the Kerry corners. In keeping with the result, Dublin got more value from their offensive threats than the Kingdom.

Connolly was the first of the players to feature. From the throw-in he jabbed the ball smoothly into his hands and found Brian Fenton driving through to score the first point of the game. However, that was one of only two Connolly contributions of note in the opening 20 minutes.

At the other end, Colm Cooper was even more peripheral; one of his only touches of the ball came with a typically well-placed foot-pass to O’Donoghue, who hit a fine point on 16 minutes, but that was as much as Kerry got from the Dr Crokes man in the first half.