Cian O'Sullivan suggests that Dublin's league final defeat to Kerry could turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

Speaking to The Irish Independent at the announcement of a partnership between Skins and Dublin GAA, the Kilmacud Crokes clubman recalled the heavy defeat they shipped to Meath back in 2010 and how they bounced back from that.

He says they will take on board the vital lessons learned in their loss to the Kingdom.

"Although I wasn't playing, Meath beat us when they got those (five) goals. Again, like, (it was) a defeat we took a lot from.

"And probably a defining moment with that group of players and that team. Looking back over the analysis of that game, a few light-bulbs went off and that prepared us for the rest of that season and the seasons ahead."

The All-Ireland winning number six continued: "We would have had a few kind of defining games over the last number of years.

"I spoke earlier about the mental resolve and resilience that's built into the team. That's probably one of our greatest strengths.

"And we've shown it time and time again. But to get that, to build that, you have to come through those type of games. You need those defining wins.

"There's no amount of sitting around a training ground in front of a flip chart that you can do to learn that. You have to experience it.

"You have to be in a game with ten minutes to go behind four or five points and pull it out of the bag to really build that kind of resilience in the team.

"Obviously Kerry will take a lot out of that win against us in the league final, but I think we still showed ... I think they probably could have won by a bit more than they actually did if we didn't turn things around the last five, 10 minutes, so thankfully, again we showed that we still have that string to our bow.

"We are happy with how we closed out the game. It's just unfortunately that the rest of it wasn't up to our standards.

"(We're) obviously disappointed that we lost the game, lost the league final but that's kind of where it ends with us from a team and players' perspective."

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