Stephen Cluxton showed the leadership he’s always shown straight after Paddy Small’s goal

Niall McIntyre

Dublin 1-15 Kerry 1-13

Gavin White has just made a catastrophic error.

Colm Basquel has capitalised and, with the aid of a deflection, Paddy Small has scored the goal that has levelled this All-Ireland final up. 45 minutes are on the clock, shadow-boxing has been the name of the game for 30 of them but from now on there’s no hiding place.

Because that is one hell of a gut-punch.

Kerry had Dublin on the ropes, lagging and weary and apparently out of ideas but suddenly the shoe is on the other foot. Paddy Small is strutting past the hill with his arms out wide like a man-of-the-moment and suddenly, Kerry are the ones punch-drunk and stumbling.

Suddenly, Dublin have a head full of ideas.

It’s no surprise to see them losing their minds up in the Hill, that’s what they came for for, but down on the pitch Cormac Costello has the wrong one.

He’s getting involved with Tom O’Sullivan, pushing and shoving and letting him know that Dublin have just scored a goal but Costello is already on a yellow, and that’s why Stephen Cluxton is coming for him.

He runs out of his goals, pushes Costello on the back and tells him to wake up, get your head in the game.

Costello lasts only five more minutes before getting the curly finger.

The hi-jinx wasn’t the reason he was taken off but, from Cluxton’s perspective, the hi-jinx clearly wasn’t conducive to winning this game. Unrelenting focus on the job at hand was always one of Dublin’s hallmarks.

It goes back to Pat Gilroy’s initial idea in 2011 of scraping Dublin of egos and billy big lads and showboating and, whether it would have made a difference or not, Cluxton has his way and Costello drops the act.

Kerry respond like a dream, stretching out again with the next three points but for them, that’s as good as it got.

Speaking to us after the game, Jack O’Connor can’t help but feel that in having to start from scratch to build their handy work up all over again, his team expended priceless energy.

With the benefit of hindsight, it’s impossible to disagree with him.

Especially when the dreaded Dublin surge arrived in the closing quarter, with points from Mannion, Basquel, Fenton and Paddy Small igniting the team, and rising the hill.

To their credit, through chants of come on you boys in blue, Kerry responded but they were only responding now, they were no longer leading the charge.

And it soon became clear that, after all that, they didn’t have a knock-out punch to swing.

David Clifford was their best hope but the wides were building from his perspective. And they were sucking the life out of the team. The last one was the real killer, because, having for once put real daylight between him and Fitzsimons, it would have levelled the whole thing up.

But it didn’t curl in and seconds later, Dean Rock was curling over from a free.

Life goes on. Paudie Clifford had scolded his younger brother for some of the hopeful shots he took on in those closing minutes but at the final whistle, he was the first one over to him. He put his hand out, hugged him and patted him on the back.

That’s sport. Life goes on…

Dublin

Stephen Cluxton (0-2f); Eoin Murchan, Michael Fitzsimons, David Byrne, James McCarthy, John Small, Lee Gannon, Brian Fenton (0-3), Brian Howard, Paddy Small (1-1), Paul Mannion (0-5, 0-1f), Ciaran Kilkenny, Cormac Costello (0-1f), Con O’Callaghan, Colm Basquel (0-2)

Scorers: Jack McCaffrey for Lee Gannon (48), Niall Scully for Cormac Costello (53), Sean McMahon for Brian Howard (63), Cian Murphy for Eoin Murchan (64), Dean Rock (0-1f) for Paddy Small (68)

Kerry

Shane Ryan; Graham O’Sullivan, Jason Foley, Paul Murphy, Tadhg Morley, Gavin White, Diarmuid O’Connor, Jack Barry, Dara Moynihan, Sean O’Shea (0-5, 0-4f), Stephen O’Brien, Paudie Clifford (0-3), David Clifford (0-3, 0-1f), Paul Geaney (1-1)

Subs: Brian Ó Beaglaoich for Paul Murphy (55) Micheal Burns for Stephen O’Brien (57), Adrian Spillane for Stephen O’Brien (57), Killian Spillane (0-1) for Paul Geaney (63), Mike Breen for Jack Barry (66)