Talking points from a smorgasbord of provincial finals

Finals weekend has come and gone in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, but the debates continue to rage after a mixture of outcomes.

Kerry, Dublin, Galway and Derry were all crowned provincial champions in differing circumstances, but what have we learned?

A runaway train

On The Sunday Game, Colm Cooper said that Kerry needed to sharpen up in attack, particularly when it came to goals. The result of the match he was talking about? Kerry 1-28 Limerick 0-08.

To be fair to the eight-time All-Star, he provided a series of clips clearly showing the Kingdom wasting glorious green flag opportunities whilst also pointing out that a lack of goals have derailed their Sam Maguire hopes in recent seasons.

Still, when there's a lament that a winning margin should have been higher than 23 points, something is up with the system.

Limerick, remember, entered this Munster final on a massive high. They earned promotion to Division 2 and followed it up with championship wins over Clare and Tipperary. Billy Lee’s side were in a good place but were still walloped.

Given that only a division will separate these sides in 2023, it does not bode well for the sides aiming to close the championship gap on the top teams.

"They won’t shirk this. They’ll take it on the chin and try to improve the factors of the game that we need to improve on as we face into the next game and into Division 2 next year," Lee said afterwards.

The determination there and the progress clearly is too as the Treaty County have come from the depths of Division 4, but that final step seems near impossible for so many counties right now. And it appears to be getting steeper.

Thriller or horror?

Unsurprisingly, the most competitive provincial final came up north as Derry made