Five things we learned from the weekend's action at Croke Park

These Dubs get going when big prizes on offer...

1

Records continue to tumble in front of this Dublin team like dominoes. They’re on a 22-game unbeaten streak now stretching back to the early stages of last year’s Allianz League campaign.

They have gone through this year’s Division 1 campaign with a perfect record and have been able to time their run to perfection, saving their best performance for the final. It’s a first four-in-a-row of league titles since, ironically, Kerry in the early 1970s but perhaps the most striking statistic is Dublin’s incredible record of winning games after St Patrick’s Day goes on.

In the 34 games under Jim Gavin’s reign they’ve played after March 17 , they’ve lost just once, to Donegal in the 2014 All-Ireland semi-finals. It’s a remarkable statistic which proves when the big prizes are on offer and when the Championship comes into view, this Dublin team gets going.

2

It’s hard to know what to say to console Kerry. They have tried a number of different ways to beat Dublin and come up short each time, three times now in a matter of months.

Eamonn Fitzmaurice clearly believed they were capable of turning things around because he has looked to largely the same players involved in last September’s All-Ireland final defeat with only positional switches shaking things up.

They lacked the same ferocious intent as Dublin though and were unable to live with the continuous runs and overlapping movements coming at their defence. Those are big areas to address before a potential rematch further down the Championship line though Fitzmaurice will continue to believe.

3

The rejuvention of Louth football is coming along nicely under Colin Kelly. Speaking after last summer’s Championship win over Leitrim, a rare success in a difficult year that yielded relegation to Division 4,

Kelly was upbeat about the future. “We’re a proud county and don’t want to be where we are,” said Kelly at the time. “Hopefully we’ll start making strides up the ladder, sooner rather than later, with a team that’s going to have a bit of longevity, rather than a quick fix.”

Nine months or so on and Kelly’s prediction has proven solid. Conor Grimes, who hit their crucial late goal in Saturday’s Division 4 final win over Antrim, is just out of U21 while players in key positions through the spine of the team are of a similar age. The Championship is the real acid test but they will fancy their chances of beating Carlow in the first-round.

The winners of that tie play Meath and with all the history between Louth and Meath, allied to the fact that Meath have had a patchy Division 2 campaign, a shock could easily be on the cards at that stage.

4

Spare a thought for Clare’s county board coffers with all this talk of revolution in the county. Gary Brennan was perhaps being a little pointed when he declared ‘The Banner roars for football’ after hoisting the cup for winning the Division 3 title at Croke Park. It was, presumably, a veiled reference to the fact Clare are also through to the hurling league final next weekend and the county has already gone a little bit gaga with the deeds of Davy Fitzgerald and Dónal Óg Cusack so far in 2016. Brennan also spoke of his desire for the footballers to go deep into the Championship this summer and to turn their back on their recent history of early qualifier exits. If they do so, and the hurlers continue their fine progress during the summer months, then it will be a costly year for the board.

5

The status quo was restored yesterday as the two teams that finished top of the pile in Divisions 1 and 2 won their respective league finals, Dublin and Tyrone. In doing so, the two teams preserved the only unbeaten records in the entire league. However, the wins for Clare and Louth in the Division 3 and 4 finals may lead some to question if the finals should take place at all. Both sides finished second in their groups with Clare all of four points behind Kildare in Division 3. But in a one-off game anything is possible and the league table was left to look a little undermined as the runners up after seven matches were ultimately crowned champions in those lower two divisions.