No one could have expected such a stark turnaround to this Leinster final. Who would have bet against Dublin at half-time, with everything going their way and Kildare struggling to get any sort of grip on the game?
Not only that, Kildare have been finding it so difficult to get a goal all year and then to suddenly conjure up two, it surely was the most remarkable change of fortune that one could imagine. But there is one crucial thing about this Kildare team. Most of them have been together for three or four years now and they do have this incredible belief in their own ability. Mick O'Dwyer certainly helps instil this although the players show this wonderful support for each other and a heartfelt never-say-die attitude.
They've been through some fantastic games in the last couple of years and their fitness levels now are quite phenomenal, with training sessions of extreme intensity. That combination in a game of this significance is a formidable recipe, and one which clearly paid off on Saturday.
Having said that, they had some big problems in the first half. There was some general sparring for the first 15 minutes but then Dublin took over. Their half backs were extremely strong, midfield was all their own, and the forwards were beating their men with good running and score-taking.
In fact, Dublin may well have had an even greater margin than six points at the break. Brian Stynes was winning an awful lot of possession at midfield but he was guilty of giving a lot of ball away as well. If he had used that more astutely, Dublin could have been out of sight. It's hard to pinpoint what was going wrong for Kildare, but their slack marking was untypical, there was major gaps appearing in their inside line, and their forwards were isolated for vast periods of time.
There's been a lot of comment about what Mick O'Dwyer must have said at halftime but I'd be more interested to know what Tom Carr said. Of course he would have tried desperately to warn his players that there was another 35 minutes to play and that Kildare were never going to lie down. But it's difficult to prevent complacency sneaking in, and I'm sure he felt that Dublin needed a good start to the second half to maintain their rhythm.
Of course, how can you legislate for two goals in such a short space of time? And they had all sorts of effects on Dublin beyond the six points. There's the shock factor for a start, and I did feel that some Dublin heads immediately stared to drop. But it was like a trap-door opened on their game, and suddenly all the rhythm and all the ideas were gone. The forwards quickly lost shape, but I was surprised that Jason Sherlock wasn't moved out the field like the last day. He seemed to be tied to front and had very little impact on the game.
More importantly, they were no longer picking up their man like they should have. Dermot Earley just decided to run at the goal on the off chance of a break and he was let go to finish a well-crafted goal. The second one was slightly more fortuitous, but they still had the man in the right place and Tadgh Fennin did well to finish it.
From then on, the Dublin attack was easily closed down. Paul Curran was making some decent runs down the right side but there weren't any options for him in terms of support. Dessie Farrell was also finding himself on these solo runs without any free man to help him.
The change in momentum and confidence was clear. Dublin badly needed a steadying influence but they never found it. They seemed to run out of heart. On top of that, Kildare had always been struggling to score points from play but now the Dublin defence started showing some indiscipline, allowing Padraig Brennan to convert a series of frees. Earley, Martin Lynch and Willie McCreery stood out in taking control and moving the ball accurately forward.
Another crucial element for Kildare was the very astute use of substitutions. I felt Brian Murphy was particularly useful and Karl O'Dwyer provided some further stability. In contrast, all the Dublin substitutions seemed to be in desperation.
Of course, the post-mortem will be difficult for Dublin but there's no doubt that this is a very capable Kildare team. Mick O'Dwyer will have them back down to earth fairly soon and that elusive goal of an All-Ireland title is very much alive again.
(In an interview with Ian O'Riordan)