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"It's like ping pong" - Ciaran Kilkenny takes us to the heart of the frantic Dublin vs Mayo clash

For Ciaran Kilkenny and Dublin, they have written themselves into GAA history. Edging Mayo by a s...



"It's like ping pong&#...
Football

"It's like ping pong" - Ciaran Kilkenny takes us to the heart of the frantic Dublin vs Mayo clash

For Ciaran Kilkenny and Dublin, they have written themselves into GAA history.

Edging Mayo by a single point (again) in an All Ireland final, Jim Gavin's side earned the three in a row, the first for the county since the generation that won a trio in 1921, 1922 and 1923.

Our own Oisin Langan caught up with Kilkenny after the match and the Dublin centre forward summed up the hard fought nature of the clash with Mayo.

"It's like ping pong" - Ciaran Kilkenny takes us to the heart of the frantic Dublin vs Mayo clash

00:00:00 / 00:00:00

"It was a game that was played at a frantic pace. There was no time to get a breather. You're just end to end. That tends to be the kind of game when we play Mayo. Both teams generally go man to man and it's just a frantic pace," he said.

"The ball goes to the other end. It's like ping pong, up and back and they bring a physicality to the game in the tackle and just how they play as well, so we knew they were going to bring that and it was just a really, really physical game. It came down to two frees at the end. Unfortunately, Cillian [O'Connor] hit his off the post and Dean [Rock] hit his over the bar. But it was just played at an electric pace and that's why you need six men to come in to finish the job because lads are just on their feet towards the end of the game."

Dublin's Philip McMahon, Dean Rock and Ciaran Kilkenny celebrate 3 in a row ©INPHO/James Crombie

Mayo held a narrow lead going into half time with Dublin struggling to impose themselves despite the early goal by Con O'Callaghan but Kilkenny said "nothing was really said" by Dublin manager Gavin during the break.

"We're used to being in those situations," said the Castleknock club man.

"We've been down in the past. We were only one point behind, considering we hadn't been playing as well as we thought we should've and I suppose in the second half, we all got freed up a little bit and got on a bit of ball and managed to get a few scores and I felt that we were getting on top of the game and then they got a good goal against the run of play and then it was tit for tat then towards the end of the game." 

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