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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