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All but four Dublin players have serious room to improve | Charlie Redmond

After Sunday's drawn All-Ireland football final, Charlie Redmond believes it is the reigning cham...



Football

All but four Dublin players have serious room to improve | Charlie Redmond

After Sunday's drawn All-Ireland football final, Charlie Redmond believes it is the reigning champions Dublin who have the greatest room to improve in the forthcoming replay. 

"The drive-for-five is still alive," proclaimed a relieved Charlie Redmond on Monday's OTB AM.

Although he had always expected Kerry to challenge Dublin's dominance in Croke Park on Sunday afternoon, the prospect of Jim Gavin's men suffering a first championship defeat since 2014 had never quite seemed this plausible.

Rallying superbly in the final minutes of an epic encounter, it could have conclusively turned in Dublin's favour had Dean Rock converted his late free-kick.

However, far from lamenting Rock's late miss, a sense of relief was to the forefront of Redmond's mind as the final whistle was blown.

"We've come out of this game and haven't played well," suggested Redmond.

"We didn't play well in a number of positions, we were a man down for 35 minutes but we still showed incredible resolve to get a draw out of this at the end.

"We can be relieved and we can be happy, where Kerry can just be happy because they'll probably walk away thinking they left this behind them."

Dublin

With the replay to come in less than two weeks' time, Charlie Redmond expects Jim Gavin to react with typical care when it comes to selecting the starting XV.

Absolving four Dublin players of any responsibility for Sunday's uncharacteristically off-key performance, the former All-Ireland winner believes there is room to improve across the pitch.

"Cluxton was Cluxton, McCaffrey, Howard and Rock," noted Redmond, "they were our four best players yesterday.

"I think when you look around the park, everybody else will know they can do a lot better.

"[Brian] Fenton had probably one of his quietest games, but that's just because his standards are so high. Paul Mannion likewise."

If Kerry could have been considered something of an unknown entity on the biggest stage prior to the drawn encounter, Redmond expects that Dublin will learn from yesterday's mistakes.

"I'm sure Jim and his backroom team are today going to meet and look back at the game," suggested Redmond, "they'll identify flaws and look where they can make it better the next day."

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All Ireland Final Charlie Redmond Dublin Gaelic Football Kerry