Jim Gavin admitted that he hadn't expected it to be so easy for Dublin in the Leinster SFC final.

The All-Ireland champions produced a devastating display to trounce Meath by 16 points, having led by 20 before Mickey Newman scored a late consolation goal for the Royals.

"I would probably be a little bit surprised at the margin of the score at the end," said Gavin, who has yet to taste defeat in the championship since becoming manager at the start of 2013.

"But we did step it up from the Wexford game, because we had to step it up. We knew the challenge that Meath would pose, had seen how they can get goal chances, so we knew if we didn't bring an intensity to the game that they would have exploited us in the back line.

"And I thought our back division played very well, very tight. We shut most of their opportunities down, and then in the second half, when as you saw, we lost a bit of concentration that they did punish us. So again there's always room for improvement."

Gavin heaped praise on his players for maintaining the drive and hunger that has seen Dublin football reach new heights over the past 18 months.

"Certainly there were patches of that game where the players set out to play to the game plan and they certainly played it to the best of their ability.

"There are a lot of similarities to 2013, in that the players are driving the agenda, and are continuing to drive the agenda. But we're going very much into the unknown now in the next few weeks. We're not sure who we'll be playing next (in the All-Ireland quarter-final). So there are no guarantees.

"What has got them here is their self-sacrifice, and their diligence and their discipline. We need to say very little to them. They're a very motivated bunch of men." Tweet

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