Colm O’Rourke and Tomás Ó Sé are united in their opinion that Dublin will take some beating on Sunday.
Mayo are everyone’s underdog going into the All-Ireland SFC decider at Croke Park, with pundits and fans alike doubting their hopes of claiming Sam for the first time in 65 years.
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And O’Rourke believes manager Stephen Rochford will have to find a way to contain the Dubs' formidable forward line to end the long drought.
The Meath All-Ireland winner told RTÉ Sport: “His (Rochford) biggest problem is going to be holding four of the most dangerous forwards in the country – (Diarmuid) Connolly, (Bernard) Brogan, (Kevin) McManamon and (Dean) Rock. And McManamon and Rock are like two new men this year in the way that they’re playing.
“I’d say that his advice to his players should be to try and hold Dublin and score three goals in the last ten minutes. That would probably win the game because you need to catch Dublin in the last ten minutes.
“If Dublin are behind by two or three, as they showed against Kerry, they just keep coming at you and they’re a dangerous animal in the last ten minutes of every game, where they seem to out-score everybody.”
Meanwhile, Kerry legend Tomás Ó Sé believes Stephen Cluxton’s influence must be stymied, although the Dublin threat comes from many areas.
The five-time All-Ireland winner said: “I think everybody’s talking about Cluxton so long now that we tend to ignore him coming up to games, but he, in my mind, is definitely the most influential player they have.
“He dictates everything they have. It’s like if you’re in a training game, going across the pitch where the goalie just hand-passes the ball out... they’re guaranteed possession every time - you really need to focus on Cluxton.”
"But it’s not only Cluxton – if you look at Dublin, you look at their defence and they way they run at you, you look at Brian Fenton at midfield, you look at Cian O’Sullivan, you look at their forward unit, I think that their work-rate is a danger.
“They have so many facets to their game... They’re not unbeatable, but it’s very, very hard to beat them if they tick the mark on four or five of those boxes.”
Watch live coverage of Dublin v Mayo on The Sunday Game on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player from 1410 and follow our live blog on RTE.ie. Live radio coverage on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1 from 1400. Watch highlights of both the All-Ireland minor and senior finals on The Sunday Game on RTÉ2 from 2130.
