Kerry have the same capacity for improvement as Dublin ahead of the All-Ireland final replay, former Kingdom captain Dara O Cinneide insists.
While accepting that it was a below par performance from the champions, when O Cinneide counts the number of players who distinguished themselves on either side, he only needs the fingers of one hand.
He said: “From a Dublin point of view, who played up to form? Cluxton, Dean Rock, Brian Howard, Jack McCaffrey obviously, that’s 11 starters who can say to themselves, ‘I can definitely improve’.
“Kerry have about five lads that played up what they would normally expect to play and that’s being generous about it.
“This notion of who gets this and who gets that and who has the most scope for improvement - Kerry have it too, like. You look at it, every single one of the Kerry backs can say, ‘Listen, we did ok but we could do better’.
“David Moran played quite well, Sean O’Shea if he reproduces that kind of kicking game, it’s something else, like.
“To me that was the biggest thing coming out of it, I thought his free-taking was immense.”
The 2004 All-Ireland winning captain says he’s more confident for the replay than he was prior to Sunday having taken heart from the performance of Peter Keane’s young side.
“I’m acutely aware that Dublin will improve and Dublin won’t do some of the things that they did [on Sunday].
“There were some very uncharacteristic mistakes, but I think nobody’s making allowances for Kerry. Kerry’s graph is still going upwards.
“They’re a team that are learning off the cuff all the way up, every game they play.
“This is the same set of backs that at the start of the summer we were holding our breath every time the ball would go in behind midfield.
“They should have had three more goals other than the one they got and you’d say to yourself, ‘Jesus, it’s a different game’.
“We’re not blind to what Dublin are capable of and the effect that Jonny Cooper’s sending off had but at the same time I’m a lot more hopeful for the 14th of September than I was for the first of September.”
O Cinneide was playing the last time Kerry were involved in an All-Ireland final replay in 2000 and remembers the sense of anti-climax about it.
“It was very strange in 2000 because they still used to have those post-match functions where you had to meet the opposition and none of us wanted to meet each other even though we had a very strong relationship and still do with those Galway lads.
“We just didn’t want to be there. There was a function and it was just a nightmare. The first thing you notice actually is how shattered you are. It hits you.
“When you win an All-Ireland you tend not to notice how tired you are. When you lose it’s just pure despair, like. When you draw it, you actually notice how shattered you are and you’re just saying, ‘Get me out of here’.
“If you could press a button and go home and just get out of Dublin and start recalibrating, and I’m sure that’s what the teams did [Sunday night], whereas when we drew that time we had to attend a function, which was ridiculous.
“I remember Darragh O Se wasn’t pleased with his performance the day before and he didn’t want to be there. None of us wanted to be there.
“The psychology of it was, ‘Let’s just get back on the train as quickly as we can’.”
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