Dublin have extended their unbeaten Championship streak by taking a seventh consecutive Leinster championship title. Many had hoped that Kildare would've given a better test than other Leinster sides, but the Lilywhites fell away.
James Horan was watching the game, and he appeared on Newstalk's GAA show tonight. He was full of praise for Cian O'Neill's side for having a go at the Dubs:
You look at any other Leinster team that set up defensively against Dublin. They were in no way ever going to win the game.
Kildare scored 1-17, they set up to play a game to get enough scores to try and beat Dublin. I commend them for the way they went at Dublin.
But he saved his best praise for the dominant Leinster champions. The former Mayo boss was impressed with how efficient Jm Gavin's side was with the ball in their hands:
Their basic hand passing, their basic foot passing is on the money every single time. That might sound like a small thing but every one of their attacks flows. The hand pass is in front of the runner. The kick pass is into his path. There's very few passes intercepted.
Kildare have fifteen unforced turnovers. That, for me, in every game they've played is of the highest level I've seen of any team ever. Then on top of that, they have the mobility, and the game which they could play solid at the back or go toe-to-toe with an attacking team.
They evolve and they play, based on what they see. The whole round package - and that's before you get into individual quality!
The topic of refereeing came up in the show, with Horan struggling to pick the three best refs in the country. Paddy Neilan's performance came up after his performance in Thurles on Saturday night. Horan dissected what he saw from the official:
It was crazy. When you consider those two teams have trained hard all year preparing for a game like that, for it come down to two or three really strange decisions by the ref is really tough.
The problem is that Gaelic football is one of the hardest games to referee. One ref, a 140 yard pitch with 28 outfield players running around. It's crazy what we expect refs to do.
There was an incident in the first half where Armagh got a legitimate goal but the ref brought it back for advantage. Then in the second half, Tipp kicked away advantage and it was a turnover. By the rule, it should've been a Tipperary free. Four or five seconds later, Jamie Clarke puts it into the net.
You can listen back to the full segment on the Newstalk website.
