Kerry 1-12 Dublin 2-7:An Taoiseach arrived in Parnell Park yesterday after commemorating one glorious defeat and took his seat for another setback, this one less likely to be rescued by consequent events. Having been put down by the old oppressor Kerry, Dublin were consigned to relegation for the first time in 12 years.
As the dice rolled elsewhere, a draw would have kept them in next season's streamlined top flight but again the team were unable to quarry out the required result as the clock ticked down on decision day in Division One of the Allianz NFL.
Manager Paul Caffrey made the point afterwards that there won't be much between the first and second divisions next year and although that's true, another narrow defeat in a critical match is hardly the spring send-off the Leinster champions would have wished.
Before the throw-in Dublin's prospects brightened with the news that Kerry would be starting without both of their first-choice centrefielders. That was counter-balanced by the announcement that Colm Cooper and Michael Russell would both line out in place of Tommy Griffin and Cooper's club-mate Kieran O'Leary.
By the end, however, any notion of Dublin making hay in the absence of Griffin and Darragh Ó Sé (recovering from a chipped bone in his hand) had evaporated in the bright sunshine, as an out-of-sorts Ciarán Whelan had to be replaced after the imposing but makeshift opposition pairing of Micheál Quirke and Séamus Scanlon had completed a solid afternoon.
The best Dublin managed in the middle was to break ball but the rest of the team were poor and indecisive on the ground and allowed Kerry's half lines hoover the carpet possession.
A cursory glance at Caffrey's to-do list at the start of the campaign would have revealed the discovery of a full back, enhanced centrefield options and the bedding-in of new forwards as priorities.
Seven matches on and things aren't looking so hot.
Ross McConnell has only had a couple of games to attune himself to the conversion from centrefield to the edge of the square. Yesterday he put in a game enough performance on Cooper but equally was assisted by his opponent spending a lot of time in his deeper, club position, which drew McConnell out to more comfortable territory, rather than isolated with the lethal Dr Crokes forward and facing into Darragh Ó Sé-guided kicks from the middle - the likely championship fate of Kerry's opposing full-back lines.
Ironically when McConnell was briefly switched, Cooper got up to fist a goal off a dropping ball - the one area in which the Dublin full back might have been able to dispute his man's credentials.
Dublin's centrefield has regressed and needs Whelan to relocate his form after an injury-curtailed NFL and Shane Ryan to re-ignite the engine that made him so effective last year and a crucial target for Cluxton's kick-outs, which yesterday looked bereft without Ryan's clever wing running of a season ago.
Up front Jason Sherlock, in his 13th League, was incomparably the team's best forward until Alan Brogan emerged from injury-enforced absence in the second half to take up the struggle. His brother Bernard and Mark Vaughan need more matches and neither noticeably advanced their championship case.
For Kerry it was another cheering performance from a team that has had much distraction in the League and once again yesterday was plainly under-strength.
The match only really caught fire after half an hour's dilatory point swapping when a strong run up the right from Barry Cahill culminated in a dangerous ball into the square where Kevin Bonner fisted off the bar and Sherlock was quickest onto the rebound to give the home side a 1-3 to 0-5 lead.
Within two minutes, however, Cooper had replied and a fine point from Bryan Sheehan sent Kerry in two points up, 1-6 to 1-4.
Two dead-ball kicks from Vaughan, a 45 and a free, levelled the match but as was to happen at the end Kerry, once threatened, simply tipped the pedal and motored away into a four-point lead, the last score in the sequence coming from Eoin Brosnan being unmarked in acres of space in the 63rd minute.
A minute later Brogan inspired the revival, setting up Paul Casey for a thumping finish to the net and within a further 60 seconds shooting the equaliser.
They had by now momentum and the fact that Tyrone were going to lose - making a draw enough for survival - but in hauntingly familiar fashion, Dublin conceded late points to the accurate Declan Quill and the inevitable Cooper.
KERRY: D Murphy; P Reidy, T O'Sullivan, M Ó Sé; T Ó Sé, A O'Mahony, D Bohane; M Quirke, S Scanlon (0-1); Darren O'Sullivan, E Brosnan (0-1), B Sheehan (capt; 0-2, one 45); D Quill (0-6, three frees), C Cooper (1-1), MF Russell (0-1, a free). Subs: P Galvin for Russell (51 mins), K O'Leary for D O'Sullivan (65 mins), Declan O'Sullivan for Sheehan (71 mins).
DUBLIN: S Cluxton; D Henry, R McConnell, P Griffin; B Cahill, B Cullen, G Brennan; C Whelan, D Magee; C Moran (capt), J Sherlock (1-2), B Brogan; C Keaney (0-1, a free), K Bonner, M Vaughan (0-3, two frees and 45). Subs: A Brogan (0-1) for Brogan (half-time), P Casey (1-0) for Brennan (50 mins), T Quinn for Bonner (56 mins), S Ryan for Whelan (56 mins).
Referee: J McKee (Armagh).
