We wouldn’t be happy with that performance: Jim Gavin

Dublin may have pulled victory ‘out of the fire’ with their terrific late surge against Monaghan last Sunday but manager Jim Gavin was not impressed with the overall display.

The Dubs face Kerry this Sunday in the NFL Division 1 final (Croke Park, 4.0) and Jim knows his men will have to up their game if they are to retain the title.

“We wouldn’t be happy with that performance at all,” says Jim, reflecting on Sunday’s victory in Clones.

“To put ourselves in that position – to be six points down with the third quarter just gone – wouldn’t be acceptable. If we play like that again, we’ll have disappointing days ahead.

“Once again you couldn’t but praise the Dublin players’ effort and their resilience and grit.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do. I think our performances through those seven games have been clunky,” adds Jim.

“We’ll never get perfection, that’s not achievable; but we’re consistently looking for a high level of excellence and we haven’t got that throughout the full 70 minutes of a game ... if we don’t, it just won’t be good enough going forward.”