SLX AND THE CITY

Dublin make it half dozen All-Ireland titles and for boss Bohan this one may be sweetest yet after major rebuild

- PAUL KEANE

EXACTLY why Mick Bohan and his Dublin squad were so unhappy and frustrated last October, we'll probably never find out.

It sounded like a bit of a ruse when he trumpeted throughout the year that just being competitive this season was their main target.

This, afterall, was coming from a man who had guided Dublin to the four-in-a-row only three years ago and who still possessed so many heavily decorated players. Along with the more recently acquired Hannah Tyrrell- who we will come to shortly.

Yet as the build-up to the 50th All-Ireland senior final played out, it became clear that the Dublin dressing-room really was a scary place to be around last Halloween time.

"There were some long conversations that weren't pretty.... in terms of what came out from players and management," said Sinead Aherne, with the memory of an All-Ireland quarter-final loss to Donegal still strong.

From there to here, it has been some turnaround.

Dublin are back on top of the ladies game, for the sixth time, and on the basis of the first-half performance they turned in to break the back of Kerry's challenge, condemning the Kingdom to back to back final defeats, they could be here for some time.