Dublin boss Jim Gavin has praised the Kerry forwards after his Dublin side lost by a point at Croke Park on Sunday.
Speaking to Newstalk Sport's Oisin Langan after the match, Gavin said: "Cracking game once again. Four weeks ago we had a great game against Kerry down in Tralee. We learnt a lot and it brought us on a tonne. And that game [today] will as well. We're very disappointed we didn't get the performance - didn't get the win.
"I think you have to give all credit to Kerry. Their forwards looked really sharp today. The opening of the game and the opening of the second half as well, they looked very inventive - some great scores there for Kerry and I think they fully deserved the win."
Asked why Dublin appeared slightly off their top form on Sunday, Gavin said: "Ultimately as a manager, that's my responsibility why the players didn't preform.
"We kicked an awful lot of ball away uncharacteristically and hand passed it away uncharacteristically. We had lots of chances in that third quarter of the game just after half time - didn't take them.
The Dublin team dejected. Image:©INPHO/James Crombie
"Kerry got a good few scores on the spin and we find ourselves five points down going into the final stages of the game but once again the Dublin players showed great resilience, great purpose to try and get back.
"We closed it to one point but I wouldn't just look at the last kick. We had lots of chances before that and didn't take them and that's the big take away from today.
"Defensively we did our best against an excellent Kerry team but overall it just wasn't good enough."
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