Mix of Titanic battle and chess game falls Kerry's Way
It was a cross between a "Titanic battle" and a "chess game" for Kerry forward Diarmuid O'Connor who was delighted to help the Kingdom back into the All-Ireland final.
A blockbuster semi-final swung between Dublin and Kerry with the defending champions' late purple patch sealing a 2-18 to 0-20 victory to set up a meeting with Mayo in two weeks' time.
There were plenty of controversial moments in the game - the Dubs felt hard done by with the two goals conceded and then felt they should have had a three-pointer themselves when Ross McGarry's attempt was cleared off the line - but it all added up to another absorbing, classic encounter between the rivals.
"That's what you get when you get to the latter stages of the championship," O'Connor told RTÉ Sport after the game.
"Especially with Kerry and Dublin, going down through the years it's a Titanic battle always. We expected nothing less and we're very happy to come out on the right side of it."
The teams were tied at the break but Dublin raced into a three-point lead before being clawed back.
"We were happy enough with certain things in the first half but we wanted to tidy up on a couple of areas," said the Na Gaeil clubman.
"We knew Dublin were going to get a purple patch, they always do... but we managed to weather the storm and Seán [O'Brien] got the goal, Dublin stayed with us right through to the end like we knew they would.
"The one positive was when they did get control in the purple patch, we managed it well. At certain stages throughout the year we probably hadn't done that.
"It was tough going, it is a chess match at times. You can't go gung-ho all the time, you have to pick your moments.
"You might spot a gap but there might be a cover defender there. That's when you might make a decision to come back and flip it around and wait and hope for a better mis-match later on."
Man of the match Paudie Clifford, who had 70 possessions and scored three points, added: "Dublin have a very good defensive system so we tried to stretch them as much as we could, try to get one-on-ones when we could.
"Thankfully we got the scores when we needed them."
