Did Kerry miss their shot in the drawn All-Ireland final?

After the drawn All-Ireland final between Kerry and Dublin, the Sky Sports pundits pondered if the Kingdom had missed their opportunity.

Kieran Donaghy

Dublin deserve massive credit. It shows you their hunger, their fitness levels. The game was going away from them.

You've got to give Kerry credit too. Everybody left it out there. We'd a lot of questions around the Kerry players coming into the game. Tadhg Morley held Paul Mannion to two points, Tom O'Sullivan held Con O'Callaghan to one point.

Up the other end, Seán O'Shea settled us down every time we needed it. Two times, Hill 16 started singing 'Come on you boys in blue', and O'Shea kicked a 50-yard free over the bar, just to say 'lads, relax'.

I can't say enough about him.

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Did Kerry leave it behind? You can look it either way. Those Kerry players will feel a bit disappointed they didn't pull it out of the bag when they were four points down at half-time. But they'll get huge belief from it. They'll come up to Croke Park in two weeks, saying 'we can do this'.

If they had taken their chances in the first half, Kerry would have walked away with it. So they'll say - 'we need to start like we did two weeks ago'.

They're going to have the confidence that they can do it. Whereas before the drawn game, a lot of these young guys, there was so much unknown.

Kerry went up against the best team in the country, that were down to 14 men for 35 minutes. In Croke Park, it's a big pitch. You might get away with it in some of the local venues, but in this stadium, the size of that pitch, Kerry won't get a better chance.

But they'll take confidence as well.

"If they had taken their chances in the first half, Kerry would have walked away with it."

Senan Connell

We talked about it before the game - how would Kerry manage the Dublin onslaught? It didn't really come. They moved up through the gears and forced a response from Dublin.

I think they're going to get better and better. They're after getting experience in spades. In an All-Ireland final, putting it up to the best team.

That's the job for Peter Keane - can he pull those fellas away and get a response? The template is there. Mayo did it three years ago. They came back with gusto the second day. They learned so much, took them on in open combat and it discommoded Dublin. Mayo have done it. Kerry have done it here.

"Everyone thinks Kerry have had their chance. That narrative will suit them going into the replay."

Kerry took them into a place where they haven't been since they played Mayo [in 2017]. They're tipping away through Leinster, winning matches in the Super 8s.

All of a sudden, there had to be a response from them.

The hallmark of a great team is how they respond to adversity.

But now everyone thinks Kerry have had their chance. That narrative will suit them going into the replay.

Peter Canavan

There were signs of complacency from this Dublin team that we were waiting on for years, that was obvious from the start. We didn't think the hype of five in a row would affect them.

But I think Dublin showed remarkable heart - that was a game they could have lost so easily. But they hung in there.

You would expect a big response from Con O'Callaghan the next day, from Paul Mannion, Brian Fenton and James McCarthy too.

From my point of view, Kerry will be bitterly disappointed. They had a chance to end the 'drive for five' and they didn't take it.

Watch Dublin vs Kerry in the All-Ireland final replay live on Sky Sports on Saturday, September 14.

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