Jack O’Connor admitted that Kerry were beaten by a better team in the All-Ireland SFC final.

Addressing the media after his side were denied back-to-back titles by Mayo, the Kingdom boss said: “It’s very disappointing. Obviously, it wasn’t the ending we envisaged after a tough enough year.

“But you have to take your hat off to Mayo. I thought they had more energy than us, more legs, more hunger, even though we fought to the end and could have snatched maybe a draw and taken it to extra-time. One or two passes went astray there near the end. I just thought that on balance, Mayo were better than us on the day.”

He continued: “I felt we started well. I just thought there were a couple of bad shot selections then. We shelled a little bit then for maybe a five-minute period. I think we had four attacks where we didn’t register a score and I thought that was significant. It just kept Mayo within touching distance.

“Obviously, they kicked a couple of two-pointers then from out on the right-hand side towards the Hill, which was the sweet spot. That just got them back in the game. While we responded well just before half-time to get that score and go in a point up, it just gave Mayo the belief that they were within touching distance. And that was enough.”

The veteran manager refused to use the absence of Diarmuid O’Connor and Tony Brosnan through injury as an excuse for the defeat.

“Diarmuid was obviously a loss. He was a big part of our gameplan on kick-outs and stuff like that, with his size out in the 12 pocket. But that’s why we have a panel. We had to deal with it. It upset us a bit, to be frank about it.

"But not making excuses now.”

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