Jim Gavin hails mental strength of his panel

Dublin manager Jim Gavin has praised the mental strength of his players following Sunday's heroic All-Ireland SFC semi-final victory over Kerry in Croke Park.

The Dubs may have conceded 2-4 without reply in the ten-plus minutes before half-time to trail by five points but the Dubs boss says there "was no sense of panic" at half-time.

“I think, once again, the strength of the squad showed and the sum of their parts is their great strength," said Jim.

“Great mental resolve shown by them, great resilience when questions were asked by a great Kerry team. I thought they answered them all.

“We expected Kerry to get scores on the board maybe not in the manner as that ten-minute spell.

“There was no sense of panic in that Dublin dressing room. It was very calm and very composed. We needed to go back to our processes which we did in the second-half and eked out the result.”

The Dubs face familiar rivals Mayo in the final on September 18.

“We haven't seen them since February, they haven't been on our radar at all. We need to review this game and take what we can from it.

“They were obviously here looking at us. It's going to be a big challenge for us but our boys will knuckle down when the time comes," added Jim.