Aaron Kernan on Football

No matter where you are from and no matter what teams are involved, All-Ireland final day is special. I trained with Crossmaglen on Sunday before heading up to Dublin for the game, and everyone was in good form at training as they looked forward to the match.

I came up with my wife and my wee fella and that in itself is special, taking my son to an All-Ireland final just as my father took me when I was a little boy.

Walking into the ground, I got chatting to a few people and there were so many neutrals there. That's the thing about an All-Ireland final, everyone gets excited about them. Everyone was expecting a special final and there were so many different opinions as to how the game was going to go. Yet the consensus was that no matter who won, it would be a great final. Two superb teams, two unbelievable benches, two serious managers - it was all set up to be the perfect showpiece.

I thought we were in for a cracker. I had gotten a sense that Kerry were really up for it, desperate to end the losing streak against Dublin. Even though the rain was falling heavily by the time the match started, I thought the teams would adjust to the conditions but it didn't happen which was surprising, given the calibre of players on show.

The weather obviously had a bearing on the contest but then again, it's not the first time these teams have played in rain. The amount of errors in the first half was unreal. You can put it down to the conditions or to nerves but it was still surprising. There was no flow to the game at all. When one team was about to make something happen, something else would go wrong. A pass missed, a ball mishandled, a slip or a fall.

A big talking point ahead of the game was how Kerry would approach Stephen Cluxton's kick-outs. Early on, you could hear the Kerry supporters trying to put pressure on him and with Kerry pushing up on some of them, quite a few went astray in the first half. Yet quite often after forcing one astray, Kerry wouldn't push up quite so far on the next one and Dublin were left to win it easy and move up the field. That happened throughout the game and it was odd, as you have to either push up fully or not push up at all. In between doesn't really work.

But more importantly, what Dublin had which Kerry didn't, were runners off the shoulder all the time. Kerry had men back, got numbers behind the ball and sometimes they had no one beyond Dublin's 45 metre line. Yet they didn't have the same drive coming out with the ball as Dublin, and they were slow and overly cautious in the way they moved forward.

Kerry were slow and laboured from open play and they were the same with free-kicks as well. They got blown up for over-carrying a few times, very unusual for Kerry, and those hopping pop passes they have become famous for were nowhere to be seen. The runs weren't being made and the kicks weren't being delivered.

I remember at one stage, David Moran was coming down the wing with the ball and was looking for a man to pass it to. No-one moved for him and in the end he was blown for over-carrying. He was looking for options, but they just weren't there and that happened throughout the game for Kerry.

RIGID KERRY

Kerry looked restricted and consumed by their tactics. They looked like they had everything too well worked out and they didn't look like they were going out to express themselves. Nothing was off the cuff, and everything looked like it was part of a very carefully planned but ultimately rigid structure.

They had an early scoring burst with three points from play in a row to go 0-3 to 0-2 in front, but most of the time, Paul Geaney, James O'Donoghue and Colm Cooper were playing too far out the field. Three of the most dangerous inside forwards in Ireland, and they're past the 45 metre line? It worked well for O'Donoghue in last year's final but I think it cost them on Sunday. Those guys need to be close to goal.

Geaney was largely the focal point of the attack in the first half but the problem was, the right ball wasn't coming in often enough and when it was, he didn't have enough support runners coming off him. Usually, Kerry are always able to get probing passes in around the 'D', and then have someone making a break - think Colm Cooper's pass for Donnchadh Walsh's goal against Dublin in 2013 - but it was a totally different story on Sunday. Ok, Dublin had a sweeper and a great structure to their defence but Kerry surely have the talent to overcome that, if they are set up to do so.

It was definitely a disappointing final and it was strange to see such a low score, 0-12 to 0-9, without an Ulster team in sight! The conditions were definitely a part of it and it was unfortunate that the rain came when it did. Ultimately though, it just wasn't the occasion we hoped for.

DESERVING WINNERS

But whatever about the weather and Kerry's failings, full credit to Dublin because they were absolutely deserving winners of another All-Ireland title.

The first thing I'll say about them is that their full-back line was absolutely superb. Jonny Cooper was brilliant on James O'Donoghue. O'Donoghue got three points but Cooper broke so much ball, as did Rory O'Carroll and indeed, Philly McMahon on Colm Cooper.

A word too on Cian O'Sullivan. I thought his reading of the game and his positional sense was first class. He never really opened up at any stage the way he can, but he didn't need to. He was where he needed to be all the time and he made sure there was never a goal threat. James McCarthy and Jack McCaffrey were solid but not quite as effective going forward as they have been previously. Donnchadh Walsh and his unbelievable engine had a lot to do with that.

But back to Philly McMahon. He utterly dictated his contest with Colm Cooper. Even though he was marking one of the great talents of all time, McMahon played his own game, won his personal battles and yet still got forward throughout the game and kicked a brilliant - and vital - score towards the end of the first half. That laid down the gauntlet to Cooper, saying "I set my own terms."

That was typical of Dublin overall, because they dictated the game and played it on their terms. They dictated the speed of it and they took the game to Kerry in a manner that Kerry never did to them. Darran O'Sullivan made a big difference for Kerry when he came on, and he certainly evolved the Kerry threat, but he was alone in that regard.

In fairness, it wasn't a day for forwards and there were misfiring displays on both sides. But Kerry seemed to be hit harder in this regard and it was as if the confidence drained from them early on, once it became clear that things were going against them in the testing conditions.

DEFENSIVE

Overall, it was a very defensive game and it was clear from both teams' set-ups that they were both desperate not to be exposed. But Dublin still went at Kerry quite a bit and had two brilliant goal chances, Dean Rock in the first half and Brian Fenton in the second. If either had been put away, the match would have been over as a contest much earlier.

Kerry were still in it until late on, and that's because Dublin missed the goal chances and ultimately didn't commit the usual numbers to their attacks, as they didn't want to be exposed at the other end. It's amazing to think that if Killian Young had scored that goal chance towards the end that Kerry might have drawn or even won the game, but it just fell to the wrong man and Dublin got it away. It reminded me of Colm McFadden's late chance in last year's final. We are talking about slim margins, even in a match where Dublin were by far the better team.

That said, I don't think Kerry helped themselves. Aside from the rigidity of their tactics, I thought Éamonn Fitzmaurice made some strange substitutions. I'm assuming David Moran picked up a knock when he came off, as I thought he was having a good game. I was also surprised to see Paul Geaney being taken off. His handling was good and he kicked two points in the first half. He probably didn't have the same movement in the second half and understandably, Fitzmaurice wanted to get Donaghy on. But I don't think Geaney should have been the first taken off.

Again, a lot of it looked pre-planned and ultimately, Jim Gavin got a lot more out of his team that Fitzmaurice did on the day.

DISAPPOINTING CHAMPIONSHIP

Looking back on the summer as a whole, it clearly wasn't a great championship. There were only a handful of matches that really gripped you. The drawn Cork-Kerry game, the Ulster final, the All-Ireland semi-finals. Beyond that, it was very predictable.

Dublin and Kerry are clearly the top two now, with Mayo just behind them. In fairness to Tyrone, you have to throw them into the mix as well based on what they achieved this year, but beyond that I think serious questions have to be asked of some of the other traditional counties in the game.

I think it's getting into a lot of players' psyches now that they can't beat the likes of Dublin and Kerry. Ok, those two have the resources, the tradition and the numbers to be the best but at the same time, it has to come from within the players, something Stephen Cluxton alluded to in his acceptance speech on Sunday. Are players from the likes of Meath, Galway, Cork and Down just willing to accept that it's Kerry and Dublin from now on, and that they are just making up the numbers?

It takes a massive amount of work and sacrifice to get to All-Ireland finals but on days like Sunday, every player in the country is jealous of the final teams and they obviously want to be there. Dublin and Kerry are there for a reason, and it's not just resources. It comes from within.

The great thing about the GAA over the years has been the fact that teams have always come through from outside the obvious two or three to win All-Irelands. Yet that is looking increasingly unlikely with each passing season, in both codes.

There have never been as many people playing football and hurling before. Facilities have never been better. At club level, we are training on a back pitch that's like a carpet, with top class floodlights, the works. That's club football. So at county level, every county player is getting a platform that they're clearly not making the most of. I think a lot of it has to be in the head.

I'm not saying everyone is going to win All-Irelands but they should be more competitive. The counties I named - Down, Cork, Galway, Meath and you can throw in the likes of Kildare, Armagh and a few others - they have to step up. In fairness to Tyrone, they showed this year what can be done. They were within a few points of an All-Ireland final and seem to have a real pep in their step now.

It can be done. You need the right guidance and the right footballers, but too often, there are too many excuses from counties. "It's the manager", or "We don't have the right structures" or simply "The other teams are too good." The gap should be closer, and I think there's no excuse for it not being closer, particularly with some of the counties I have named.

I remember as a kid going to watch a game in Navan between Dublin and Louth. Dublin beat them in the end but it had been a really competitive game and this was a Dublin team that had been in three or four All-Ireland finals in a row. I don't really understand why we aren't seeing battles like that anymore.

But I shouldn't dwell on that now because this is a time to pay tribute to the excellent All-Ireland champions we have.

Dublin have some of the best footballers I have ever seen and they are one of the best teams I have ever seen. They probably don't get the credit they deserve because they are Dublin. People talk about their pick and their resources but what has to be remembered is that these players have distractions in the capital city unlike those faced by players from other counties. I'd say it's very, very easy to run away with yourself in Dublin.

Yet they have the class, the discipline and crucially they have the hunger so it will be interesting to see where they go from here. They will enjoy celebrating this one, as they should, but they will also know that if they win next year's All-Ireland, they will be remembered as perhaps the greatest Dublin team there has ever been.

That won't enter their heads this week, but when the dust settles on this win, that piece of history is what will stand before them.

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This is the latest of Aaron's exclusive football columns, which have featured on GAA.ie throughout the summer. The opinions expressed in this column are personal and are not necessarily those of the Association. Click here to read more from Aaron and from our hurling analyst Brian Hogan