Dublin vs Kerry: How the rivalry was turned on its head after 2009 All-Ireland quarter-final

Dublin are enjoying their greatest ever spell of dominance over Kerry in Gaelic football. Over the last six championship meetings between the old rivals, there has been one draw and five Dublin victories.

Walking out of Croke Park on August 3, 2009 when the Kingdom hammered the Sky Blues, 1-24 to 1-7 in the All-Ireland quarter-final, few would scarcely have believed it would transpire this way.

The 2009 hammering ensured that the Dubs had just three wins to show from their previous 21 championship meetings with the Munster kingpins.

But that 17-point drubbing provoked a response in the capital. And the rivalry has been turned on its head ever since.

Extract from 'Mickey Whelan: Love of the Game'

In 2009, the loss to the Kingdom was a result that dominated Dublin's year. That was unfortunate, as the management team felt they were making real progress before that All-Ireland quarter-final.

The ball was thrown in, and within 36 seconds Colm Cooper had stuck it into the Dublin net. A sucker-punch for sure, but it should not have meant Dublin would roll over. It only got worse from there. A late Conal Keaney goal did little to put any gloss on the end result.

Kerry 1-24 Dublin 1-7.

In the months that followed during the off-season, the management held one-on-one meetings with all the players across three different weekends.

They were intense weekends for Pat Gilroy and Mickey Whelan, but they needed to figure out what the players were thinking. What was working? What was going wrong? One of the questions asked of each of the players was... 'Where did it go wrong against Kerry in the All-Ireland quarter-final?'

Many of the players agreed that the concession of the early goal was a massive set-back. That was true. But Pat and Mickey countered with a follow-up question:

"When is the best time to concede a goal? In the first minute? Or the last minute?"

"If a goal is conceded after 30 seconds, there are still over 70 minutes to put things right. If a goal is conceded in the last minute, there is little time to come back from that," Whelan explained.

"Yes, Cooper's goal was a blow. But the management felt the team should have been able to respond better. Dublin shouldn't have been flattened by it."

Cooper's early goal rocked Dublin. But the Kingdom won the match across 70 minutes, not just on one score in the first minute.

The fear for the Dublin management team was... This is in their heads.

Were too many lads on the Dublin team thinking that they did not have a right to beat Kerry?

There was only one way to make sure that all of the Dublin players knew they had every right to beat their greatest rivals, and that was to beat them.

And then beat them again... and again.

To achieve that, the Dublin team needed to be stronger... physically and mentally.

That All-Ireland quarter-final in 2009 showed that Dublin were still some distance from the full package. But it highlighted where they had to improve.

After the match, Pat Gilroy famously described the players as... 'Startled earwigs' in their response to the goal. Dublin needed to come back stronger.

Once a panel was decided upon at the end of 2009, it was straight down to business. The National League campaign was all about settling on a team and helping them to find a groove.

It was a three-year project.

Rome wasn't built in a day. There would be lessons along the way.

Dublin did not have to wait long for a shot at redemption.

The first assignment of the 2010 National League was massive. Dublin were up against Kerry... in Killarney. Perfect.

The stakes weren't as big as when they met the previous summer. But for Dublin, it was all about the next one. This was about laying down a marker, and delivering a statement. Not so much to the country at large, but to prove to themselves that they could beat them! Beat Kerry!

It also proved to the group as a whole that what they were doing was right.

The 6am training sessions were beginning to bear fruit.

"It's important to get to that stage, where you have full buy-in," explained Mickey.

"After that Kerry win, every single player fully bought into what we were doing.

"It also proved to the group that we weren't as far off the pace as that 2009 All-Ireland Championship quarter-final defeat suggested. The 17-point hammering didn't do us justice.

"Beating Kerry in their own backyard just months after losing to them... that was a big thing for our gang.

"They had never beaten a Kerry team. It was massive for us. It's harder to beat a team in the championship, if you have no experience of getting one over on them in any contest before that."

Mickey Whelan: Love of the Game is available in all book shops now.