A substantial danger for Dublin was evident as soon as last week's match ended. The players remained on the field and went over to commune with the supporters at the Killinan End of Semple Stadium. It was clear that the Dubs were in celebratory humour.

Such a reaction was understandable given the abyss the team stared into with 10 minutes left but it was also a commentary on original expectations. Otherwise a team that had failed to kick the 45, which would have eliminated the All-Ireland champions might have exhibited a bit more angst.

It was reminiscent of another All-Ireland quarter-final replay - this time in hurling. In an interview given by Galway dual player Alan Kerins the spring after his county lost that replay, he recalled how his team-mates had drinks in Croke Park after the unexpected draw while Clare immediately boarded the bus in silence, infuriated by their display.

We can assume Kerry were equally unhappy. For long periods last week they had looked in a different class to the challengers. Their forwards combined quickly and slickly and from the time they scored a goal in the 11th minute until the dying moments of the match they never looked like losing.

In their unhappiness, Kerry will recognise the circumstances. Last year they had to replay matches against Galway and Armagh having let a dominant position slip drastically but imposed themselves sufficiently on those replays to prevail, despite having to chase Armagh the second day.

Dublin can improve. Their confidence will have benefited from holding the champions, but this afternoon's performance will have to improve substantially. Ball-winning wasn't the most serious of the problems in the drawn match, but use and distribution was terrible. Kerry experienced some difficulty with the size of the pitch - forwards having to come too deep for the ball - but Dublin just kicked away possession.

Finishing was the most publicised of the inadequacies in use of the ball and a conservative estimate is that 2-3 could have been added to the first-half total. This reminds us that it's not just Dublin who could improve. Kerry's defence has looked wobbly in the big matches this season and the concession of frees (allowing for some soft awards by referee Mick Curley - a claim that was exaggerated anyway) has been a problem.

The SΘamus Moynihan question arose again last week, not so much because he played poorly at full back but because his ability to provide an attacking platform is compromised. One theory from Kerry during the week was that, in the absence of an obvious Dublin dangerman at full forward, the champions could switch someone else onto the edge of the square.

Tom O'Sullivan played full back for the under-21s and Michael McCarthy was full back when Kerry played Meath at this venue last year. Four goals went in that day but the same as good as happened last week without Graham Geraghty playing. A shuffle that would allow Moynihan out has presumably crossed the minds of Kerry's management.

The clearest vulnerabilities in Kerry's defence are high balls and opponents running at them. By the time the tide turned so dramatically the last day, Ciarβn Whelan was looking for ball and taking on the defence. Dublin really need him switched on from early on in the match.

Dublin's need for improvement has to go in tandem with the good performances of the last day being repeated. There have been concerns this week that injuries to Paddy Christie and Coman Goggins would not clear up.

Today will tell how serious the problems are but any slackening at the back would be very worrying for the team. Playing quite well last week, Christie and Goggins still conceded four points to John Crowley and Michael Francis Russell. If either of the Kerry corners has by their standards good days, that tally will escalate.

The question of substitutes raged for a while during the week but both teams have made no changes. With five replacements allowed, the game has become largely panel-based anyway but it's not hard to see why Tom Carr and Pβid∅ ╙ SΘ stood by the same players. Despite Maurice Fitzgerald's awesome sideline equaliser, the question about where he starts was settled earlier this season. His displays last year on entering matches were a lot more effective than his starting performances in the past couple of months.

Dublin's out-of-form forwards Ian Robertson and Colin Moran are retained as much because of lack of options than rather any real certainty that they can rediscover their best. Robertson has become too intense about his recent loss of form and a good start could liberate him from the nagging doubts apparently besetting his game.

Moran was believed in the camp to have been "very close to having a good game" and that sentiment isn't as fatuous as it could be depicted. The ultimate question is whether Dublin can sustain the level of improvement necessary and still hold Kerry to the occasional lassitude of seven days ago.

The suspicion has to be that they can't.