Rock hoping Dubs can banish second quarter fade-outs

For the first time since 2008-09, Dublin have lost three successive competitive games across league and championship, but marksman-in-chief Dean Rock insists there's no need to panic yet.

The seven-point loss in Tralee, after an admittedly spirited second half effort, was, excluding O'Byrne Cup games, Dublin's third loss in a row, coming on the heels of their surprisingly emphatic defeat at home to Armagh on the opening weekend of the league and their landmark championship loss to Mayo in last year's All-Ireland semi-final.

Combined with their questionable form en-route to last year's semi-final and the exodus of a number of all-time great players, through retirement and otherwise, the run has convinced many that the Dublin empire is in ruins.

Others, however, are inclined to see it as a blip and argue that the Dubs will be restored to health once the likes of Con O'Callaghan, Eoin Murchan and Cormac Costello return to the fold.

"I think there's always a decent amount of noise out there around the Dublin team, whether it's good, bad or indifferent. I think that just comes with the territory of being a Dublin footballer," Rock told RTÉ Sport at an AIG media event to mark the launch of Dublin's season across four codes (Gaelic football, hurling, Ladies Football and Camogie).

"It probably hasn't been as bad as two defeats probably have looked. Obviously we'd analyse and assess the games. Break it down and we just had two poor second quarters in both of those games.

"That was probably the big learning for us. The second halves of those games we played a little bit better and won both those halves. In particular it was the second quarters that let us down, both against Armagh and Kerry.

"So that's just something that we have to try