Veteran Denis Bastick will never forget or forgive 2009

It was at this stage two years ago Dublin found there was a limit to their hunger as All-Ireland champions. Denis Bastick can’t say for certain if they will meet another threshold this Sunday.

“You find yourself in a difficult position, that’s what happens in the match. And then it’s how you cope with that. So can you push on or do you rest in a game? So, I think that’s when the shit hits the fan and you say, ‘well, what’s going to happen? Are you going to drive past it or are you going to retreat?’ That’s what happens in games and some teams don’t.”

For those who say Kerry will be hungrier, Bastick reminds them of “the startled earwigs” 2009 All-Ireland quarter-final defeat, a cataclysmic loss that will never be compensated for.