As he did on the pitch, he did off the pitch, as Keith Higgins stood up and tried to answer the questions surrounding another All-Ireland heart-break for Mayo. He found it difficult to understand where it went wrong this time.
"I don't know what to say to be honest with you. It's different to last year alright. It's a game we could have won, we probably had chances ... didn't take enough in the first half but look, that's something to look at another day.”
The intensity was massive during a titanic battle but the Ballyhaunis man felt that Bernard Brogan’s second goal was what turned the game irrevocably in Dublin’s favour.
"It was difficult. I wouldn't say that [the intensity] is what ran us into difficulty. We were playing well in the first half, we just weren't converting all them chances we had into scores. We probably felt we could have been more ahead at half-time. [In the] second half they probably got the start that we were looking for. Once we did get it back level the second goal was a bit of a killer, like, you know. We got it back to a two point game with seven or eight minutes left, it just wasn't to be. I suppose it is small margins that change games.”
Dublin got the breaks that Mayo needed he pointed out, especially at the start of the second period.
“I'd say at the start of the second half they probably got the start that we were looking for. If we'd got a couple of points at the start of the second half we could have pushed two or three ahead, it would have been a different game but they're the ones that got it so ... We'd targeted a big start to the second half, we just didn't get it.”
The message at the break had been simple he revealed.
"That was the message for the last four weeks to be honest with you. To just keep going, to keep taking them on. Second half, we just didn't do it.”
While Mayo didn’t kick on after the interval they were still in with a real chance towards the end. Controversy surrounded Cillian O’Connor’s late chance though when he opted for a point instead of going for an equalising goal. Higgins however refused to look for any excuses when it came to discussing the dramatic closing moments and O’Connor’s late free.
"I don't know now, I wasn't talking to any of the boys, I didn't ask. I suppose I seen four minutes additional time up on the clock, whether there was a small bit more he could have played, I don't know. I'm not going to use that as an excuse today. It was just one of those things. It was a game that could have went either way, in the end it didn't [go our way]."
Mayo had much joy with their defence getting forward all year but he admitted that the Dublin style of play limited chances for the defenders to get forward in support on Sunday.
“Yeah, maybe. It was a very open game as well. If a wing-back went forward there was some Dublin lad going back down the other end in the next play, it was just over and back there for a while. In that heat it was going to be difficult, but I don't think that's any kind of excuse. Physically we were in great shape so I wouldn't go using the heat or anything like that as an excuse to be honest with you.”
Higgins refused to disparage Dublin’s repeated fouling in the second half, saying that in the same position Mayo might have done the exact same thing.
"It is hard to know. I haven't looked back at the game yet. They were trying to slow up the game, a lot of teams would be doing the same thing to be honest, trying to kill the game off. They're going to get penalised for it but that's the way it goes and that's the way the game is gone and I suppose if things were the other way around, we might have done the same ourselves.”
"It was always going to be a dogfight. People were expecting 20, 22 points after the semi-final between Dublin and Kerry but finals are a different kettle of fish. It was back and over at times but I don't think it was ever going to be that kind of final.”
Having fallen at the final hurdle for a fourth time, Higgins struggled to know where this one ranked in terms of disappointment.
“Yeah, another All-Ireland gone. To lose by a point is never easy but I suppose when we look back on it we'll see a lot of chances that we could have taken that we didn't but that's for another day to look at.”
Higgins was one of Mayo’s standout performers going forward as they took a narrow lead into the interval but he was forced into a fire-fighting role in the back-line for the second half. It was a change that cost Mayo a huge amount of attacking edge as the game wore on.
"Ideally you would have [spent all the game in the forwards] but, look it, that's the way things go. Tom probably had been struggling for a while but he gave all he could in the first half and, again, it is just one of those things. It would have been nice to spend the full game up there…”
He never had any doubt that top scorer Cillian O’Connor would come good on the big day despite worries over his shoulder injury.
"There was no talk about it. Cillian was the same way he was for the Donegal and Tyrone games. He could have gotten through the whole game or it could have popped after two minutes. It was nothing that we talked about, nothing that we planned. We were confident he'd last and that's the way it turned out.”
To his immense credit the versatile All Star said that despite the immense disappointment, he was already looking to the future.
"We've no choice! We're not going to pack it in. We'll go back playing club football next week probably and take it from there. Come November, December we'll have a meeting, think about it and there's FBD again in January.”
