Tenacious Dublin forced Kerry into 36 costly turnovers

In the cold light of day, neither management team will be entirely happy with their team’s showing in Sunday’s final, but Eamonn Fitzmaurice will be perplexed by his side’s lack of performance on the big day.

Kick-out strategy was identified as crucial to this game but it suited Dublin more than Kerry that the teams cancelled each other out in this area. Kerry did upset Stephen Cluxton who managed a poor 63% success ratio from his kick-outs but Kerry only did marginally better with a 66% completion ratio. Some pundits pointed to Dublin’s midfield dominance but that is not accurate as Kerry slightly shaded this area. They won 11 breaks as opposed to Dublin’s nine and also won 52% of the kick-outs taken on the day.

However, Dublin almost broke even in an area where they were regarded as vulnerable.