Rivals can not Phil so confident
PHILLY MCMAHON can’t understand why any of Dublin’s rivals would take heart from the Sky Blues’ League final defeat. The Dubs’ one-point loss to Kerry was their first in League or Championship in over two years. The general commentary since then is that it’s punched a hole in Dublin’s aura of invincibility and given fresh hope to their Championship rivals. Dublin will challenge for a three-in-a-row of All-ireland titles this summer and the likes of Mayo, Donegal, Tyrone and Monaghan perhaps feel a bit better about their own chances now. Mcmahon said: “I’d look at it the opposite way. If I was a different county, would I be happy that Dublin lost? Not really, not unless I was the team that actually beat them. “Okay, if I was the Kerry team I’d be saying ‘we beat Dublin’. But other counties that haven’t beaten us taking something out of it, I don’t think it’s a good thing for them. They haven’t beaten us.” Dublin’s lengthy unbeaten record, which stretched to 36 games before Kerry put an end to it, did appear to weigh heavily on their rivals. Mcmahon said: “It’s hard to say, possibly. You had the likes of Kerry this year who were a bit more aggressive. You might say that means that the other team is probably a bit more focused on us, than on themselves. I don’t know, we just focus on ourselves, we go out and play our game. “Ultimately, Kerry won, so maybe that works, maybe it doesn’t. Maybe other counties will look at that now and go, ‘let’s focus more on Dublin and be more aggressive’.”