Choose your poison: the close to defeat to Cork with 14 men in the 2013 All-Ireland semi-final or shipping seven goals to the rampant Rebels on your re-emergence at the same stage on Saturday?
Dublin's reward for stunning Limerick turned out to be a 20-point hammering, rather than a first All-Ireland appearance since 1961, and manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin said there were "no excuses" after the 7-26 to 2-21 defeat.
"We're very disappointed," he told RTÉ Sport. "We had to be better in lots of ways.
"I thought they [Cork] were excellent though as well. I thought they were very well set up and were extremely, extremely sharp, full of energy, very aggressive, and they were the better team throughout.
"I thought we were actually in with a chance in the first half. I think the shot count, there was just one or two in it at half-time. Obviously, the goals gave them a great cushion. We had a couple of goalscoring opportunities and hit the crossbar, and things like that. Everything had to go right for us to be still in it.
"Second half, I thought we rallied at one or two stages, but the fifth goal was just a killer and knocked the wind out of our sails.
"I thought we showed a good bit of fight to get back into it a couple of times, but it felt like each time we did that there was a sucker punch of a goal."
"There's lads in that dressing-room 5/6/7 years. There's more in this group, unquestionably."
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) July 5, 2025
Dublin manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin spoke to RTÉ Sport after his side's semi-final defeat.
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Dublin went man for man and lined out with three forwards rather than trying to limit the potent Cork full-forward line but that backfired as Alan Connolly (3-02) and Brian Hayes (2-01) scored five goals between them and Patrick Horgan (0-08, 6fs) had a couple of assists.
"We intentionally didn't," said Ó Ceallacháin when asked whether Dublin could have set up more defensively.
"I've been proven wrong now, so I can be fairly criticised. But the way we see it is, there's just no point in a zonal back six against a team like Cork. You won't concede seven goals, but you will lose the game.
"So is it risky setting up like that? It absolutely is. It didn't work. They were very sharp and they were excellent. But what I would say is with the alternative you won't lose by 20 points like what we lost there, but you will lose the game.
"It was always going to be a high risk. Is there a difference of 20 points between us and the top team in Ireland? I don't think there is, but, you know, the reality is as we leave here, that's kind of what we're looking at."
"We need to have Dublin senior hurling competing at this level all the time"
While the wounds might be too raw to consider the positives yet, a first All-Ireland semi-final in 12 years represents undoubted progress in Dublin’s first season under the Na Fianna man, who had six of the players he led to the All-Ireland club title in January on the panel today.
"Today is devastating. It's hard now to regard it as learnings, but I would say this didn't start with us this year," reflected Ó Ceallacháin.
"There are lads in that dressing room who have been there for five, six, seven years, and we never came in and said this was a three-year or a five-year thing.
"We didn't make a league final. We didn't make a Leinster final, and we haven't made an All-Ireland final. We're competing to win these, so we're very disappointed that we didn't make a final of any of those three.
"Obviously, a huge win a couple of weeks ago, and we can be fairly criticised now that we didn't follow up two weeks later. And I know what that is and we have to be better.
"We need to have Dublin senior hurling competing at this level all the time. That's where we want to be.
"There is more in this group, unquestionably, and that experience for a few lads will probably serve them well."
Watch the All-Ireland Hurling Championship semi-final between Kilkenny v Tipperary on Sunday from 3.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1. Watch highlights on The Sunday Game at 10.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
