Dean Rock accepts Dubs ran out of road

Stand-in Dublin manager admitted Westmeath were value for Leinster final victory

Dublin’s interim manager Dean Rock. Pic ©INPHO/James Crombie

The first question put to Dean Rock after becoming the first Dublin manager since Tommy Carr in 2001 to preside over a Leinster final loss was what exactly went wrong? Did Dublin simply run out of steam in extra time?

Rock agreed. Although he probably would have nodded too if you'd suggested that at varying stages of the 90-minute epic they ran out of ideas, out of huff, puff, inspiration, stamina, motivation, quality. You name it, Dublin seemed to be chasing it, particularly during 20 minutes of extra time when their world imploded around them.

"I think we showed massive resolve and resilience at the end of normal time to dig in and get it to extra time," said Rock, deputising for suspended manager Ger Brennan.

"It wasn't looking likely after 63 or 64 minutes and to be fair to them, they did claw it back but we just never got to the pitch of it at the start of extra time.

"The very first attack, the ball goes out over the sideline and from there, Westmeath just ran us into the ground to be fair to them. They were certainly full value for their victory.

"I think the dirty stuff...they won a lot of the breaking ball, the kickout battle, the ground battle. I don't know the figures on it but it just seemed they were winning a little bit more breaking ball than us and were getting massive joy on the kick out side of it.

"Certainly there will be improvements needed from us there but ultimately there's lots of facets of the game that we'll look back on and be hugely disappointed with. But the lads just have to pick themselves up, as tough as it is because we have another game in two weeks. It's a new competition and let's see what that brings for them."

Dublin are scheduled to host Louth in Round 1 of the All-Ireland SFC, raising the possibility of losing two games to Leinster teams in the same summer. That's another box Rock won't want to tick on his watch.

They'll have a fighting chance of a bounceback win if they can get their best players on the field. They were without Con O'Callaghan, Colm Basquel, Lee Gannon and Eoin Murchan again. Rock suggested that they're all close to getting back. Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne is another on the treatment table now after being taken off clutching his shoulder in the 16th minute. He'd been playing well at midfield.

"Hopefully it's positive news for Peadar, he's a massive part of our general game plan," said Rock. "He's such a big man and was probably dominating the area to be fair to him in the early exchanges. So naturally enough that does have an impact."

Killian McGinnis was shifted back to midfield with Ciarán Kilkenny foraging deep too. But Westmeath edged that vital battle.

"That's the new game, it's a kick out battle and if you can win a fair percentage of your own kick outs and win a fair percentage of the opposition kick outs, you're going to get more plays on the ball and ultimately that's what happened today from a Westmeath perspective and they took full advantage."