Dublin's hurling championship campaign ended at Semple Stadium on Saturday afternoon with a six-point defeat to Cork.
It was Dublin's third game of the championship. They had already beaten Laois in the Leinster quarter-final and then lost to Kilkenny in the Leinster semi-final. That defeat to Kilkenny led to Saturday's qualifier date against Cork.
Dublin manager Mattie Kenny felt his side having to play on three consecutive weekends took its toll on the team.
"It's our third game in two weeks," Kenny told Sky Sports.
"We're the only team out this weekend that's played three weekends in a row - that's three championship games in two weeks.
"The advantage of winning the first day didn't turn out to be that great of an advantage. The teams that didn't win the first day got two weeks of a break, while we were out last Sunday and against this [Saturday].
"We knew that coming into the game that they'd be slightly heavy-legged. I'm not here to make any excuses. On the day, Cork were that little bit sharper and the best team won."
Kenny thought Dublin allowed Cork to open up too much of a gap in the first half.
"The first half, we allowed them get a bit of a lead - they went four or five points up," said Kenny.
"We came back into the game and it was score for score after that. We never got a goal, we needed that big score at some stage in the second half just to close that gap and get ourselves right back into the game. Our lads kept fighting and showed great character in the second half.
"We're a competitive team, but we want to be more than a competitive team, we want to be a winning and go deep into these competitions and get to the quarter-finals, semi-finals so we can learn more.
"We just need to take that next step. That's the challenge for us.
"We're bitterly disappointed tonight. Everyone in the dressing room, they're really down. We wanted to get another game or two in this competition. Unfortunately, that's not the case."
Photo by Daire Brennan/Sportsfile
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