Just like in the 2017 All-Ireland football final, Dean Rock was poised over the ball preparing himself to kick what could be the winning point.
However, with the angle more acute than in 2017 there was to be no repeat from Rock. His shot went wide and now Dublin and Kerry have to do it all over again.
Speaking on the Shot Clock on OTB AM, Kieran Donaghy says he thinks that Rock missed the freekick due to tiredness.
“It was a tired strike from Dean - and he has every right to be tired. Maybe with the freshness of Costello, because I think it was a kick for a guy off the ground, he would’ve slotted it.
“But if you gave it to Costello or Connolly there would be ridicule. I’d love to know how close Dean was to the red markers, how much distance he covered and was he flagging by that stage,” the former Kerry full-forward said.
Donaghy was quick to praise Rock’s performance in the final saying that Dublin’s full-forward had “an outstanding game.”
“Dean Rock was good. A lot his freekicks were relatively easy for a guy like him.
“A lot of them were right in front of the goal, I think five or six of them were from that close. I think he had one long one and then two or three good ones from play as well - he was outstanding,” Donaghy said.
Donaghy attributes the tiredness that he thinks led Rock missing the freekick to how modern full forwards are expected to play. Admitting that this was also a factor in his retirement from inter-county football.
“It was the 78th minute and you have to remember Dean Rock was contesting kick outs, tracking back and tackling.
“It wasn’t like a traditional full-forward game where you would be doing a lot of running out to the 21 and coming back.
“Back in the day you jogged into full forward and put your hands up and stay there until the ball came in again but the game is completely different now.
“One of the main reasons I didn’t come back this year was because I couldn’t have done the shift that Paul Geaney put in for Kerry,” Donaghy admitted.
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