FOR THE THIRD time as a manager, Eamonn Fitzmaurice saw his Kerry team fall short to Dublin in championship combat this afternoon.
This loss was all the more difficult to absorb given the level of performance Kerry produced, surpassing their meek showing in last year’s All-Ireland final with a brilliant display that nearly landed the spoils.
They were two points in arrears at the finish and a dejected Fitzmaurice hailed his players after the game.
“Tough one to take. We threw everything at it and just came up short. It was a frantic game and as I said to the lads inside, I couldn’t be prouder of them in there, they’re an incredible bunch.
“They’re so honest, we’re very proud of our football in Kerry, very proud of our jersey and those fellas really filled it with pride today. I was very pleased with them from that point of view.”
Kerry hit a purple patch before half-time as they struck 2-4 without reply to go five clear at the interval. Fitzmaurice praised Dublin for the manner in which they turned the game around after the break.
“Dublin won the second half by six points. It was a thing we knew they are brilliant at using half-time to right the ship and we had them on the ropes at half-time.
“We had rehearsed some of the kick-out scenarios alright and it came off for us and gave the lads bit of life and a bit of belief which we needed at the time because we’d started quite poorly.
“Our work-rate was excellent early on but just our skill-set was off, we were taking the wrong options, our decision-making wasn’t right.
“But to be fair to the lads, there was no panic, there was no-one getting too worried and they kept at it. When they got the goal then, it gave us great life and we drove on from there.
“As they’ve done so many times under Jim Gavin’s reign, they (Dublin) righted the ship again in the second half. We won the throw-in, looked to me like David was fouled, he didn’t get a free.
“They went down, got a point straight away, and gave them belief straight away in the first 15 or 20 seconds of the second half. As I’ve said before, you have to give them massive credit.
“We did have them on the ropes but they really showed the stuff of champions in the second half.”
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I’d love to see mayo win it out the really deserve it just have to keep the egos under control by the looks of things
@Jamie: sure you have no interest in gaelic football you continually slag it off on here.
@dead right: the only thing he slags off more than gaa is mayo gaa!
@Dec: and dublin bitter little cavan man
Ah boys yee are all in fierce bad form tonight
@Jamie: Mayo deserve nothing more than the pain they are suffering, they are somehow egotistical and arrogant dispite their constant failures. Dublin and Kerry will see to it that they fail again this year.
@dead right: And no true GAA fan could consiously support mayo. Dublin are disliked by some but have to be respected as Champions. Mayo on the other hand have no respect.
@SYM-Metal: jaysus paul scanlon would you have a night off. you get slagged off by everyone here, even those that aren’t mayo fans!! keep changing your handle but its obvious from how you talk. do us all a favour and write “i hate mayo” a hundred times on your bedroom wall and save us from having to read your muck on here. cheers lad
Mayo were absolutely brutal today. They are a serious team in decline. Outside of durkan and parsons not one would get in a Dublin or Kerry team. Unfortunately they had their chance. As a Dublin person it’s Kerry’s to lose
@Bill Clay: insert year here.
@Bill Clay: Stop commenting. You’re an embarrassment.
Yawn. If they had won by 30 points you’d no doubt be claiming “Typical Mayo. Peaking too early. Championships aren’t won in May or June”.
Tough game against galway next. But would love to beat the rossies in the final. I suppose paul scanlon has changed his name again
@stephen keane: He shut up as soon as Ross were relegated. Very peaceful :)
Cillian o Connor is the greatest waste of time….gloryhole if I ever see one
@Brian Shaw: Without the constant soft fees he gets, mayo wouldn’t score at all.
If Sligo weren’t so negative they could have taken them, seems like Sligo’s main ambition in this game was not to get slaughtered like they did two years ago.
@Tomas Rooney: You have to defend and attack to get anywhere, we’re just not good enough, but I’d have no issues with the game plan, your lines are taken directly from the gobs of O’Rourke and Spillane who are bags of wind, we played some decent stuff in the second half but Mayo have better players, don’t really see where the negativity was, we tried to work the ball up the field and were smart enough to get men defending when they needed them, Mayo were just better at taking there shots, some people want 30 headless chickens running around the field