As the dust settles on Dublin's record equalling four-in-a-row in the Allianz Football League, there are concerns that the county's ongoing domination runs the risk of undermining the game's spectator appeal.

That is the view of an old rival of Dublin, former Meath selector, double All-Ireland winner and footballer of the year Trevor Giles, speaking as an Eirgrid football ambassador at an event to mark Saturday's final between Cork and Mayo in the All-Ireland under-21 championship, which the company sponsors.

“I think they’ve just become dominant and I think they’re going to stay that way for a few years, which for a neutral probably isn’t ideal in terms of, if Dublin are playing somebody – are you going to watch it; because it’s going to be one-sided?

Problem

“A lot of the games Dublin will be involved in you could say, ‘they’re going to win this game. It’s not going to be a contest.’ So it’s great for Dublin but it’s probably a bit of a problem for the game and you guys writing about it. How are you going to make it exciting or interesting?

“Dublin will have to have an off day and maybe lose a player to a red card. Something will have to work against them. It’s not particularly exciting from a neutral point of view.”

This latest win takes Dublin's major title haul since 2013 under Jim Gavin to four leagues, three Leinsters and two All-Irelands, with this year's championship yet to be played.

The final against Kerry was eagerly anticipated, as the first re-run of the previous year's All-Ireland in 23 years, with the teams widely seen as the two best in the country. Such was the nature of the victory, however, that Giles questions whether the rivalry has been overstated. "They're dominant now, aren't they? The kind of dominance they've had in Leinster for a few years, it's spreading nationally now.

“I kind of had themselves and Kerry as the top two teams, but after yesterday they’re a little bit ahead of Kerry.

“That’s a few wins they’ve had against Kerry in big games so that can chip away at a team. If you keep losing to the same team, you start losing a little bit of belief that you can beat them.”

Tyrone captain Seán Cavanagh is also an ambassador for Eirgrid and was present in Croke Park after his team's victory on Sunday in the Division Two final against Cavan.

“You’ve got to give them credit,” he said, “because I haven’t seen a team since I’ve been involved in football who have been so dominant.

Cavanagh spoke about the fact that under Gavin Dublin have lost only one match of consequence – the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final defeat by Donegal.

“I’ve been playing Gaelic football a long time but to have dominance for a sustained period – in reality they could have had Donegal beaten in the first 10-15 minutes of that semi-final and that’s the only game they’ve let themselves down in, in the past three years. Even in that game they had a few chances to whitewash Donegal and they probably would have gone on to win the final as well.

“It’s scary how dominant they’ve been over the last three years but you can do nothing else but sit back and credit Jim Gavin and what he’s been able to do with that group of players and put together such a strong and powerful running team.”

Defensive detail

Cavanagh noted that despite the big score posted by the end of the match, Dublin’s attention to defensive detail had been equally impressive.

"They do flood numbers back – I saw Bernard Brogan defending as much as Johnny Cooper.

“But at the same time they have that pace and power and strength to blow teams away at the other end and you could see the Kerry lads out on their feet after 50-55 minutes.

“Most teams will look to three or four players but they don’t seem to have that, they’re just a well-oiled machine and Jim Gavin has them firing on all cylinders. I just hope they have a blip somewhere along the line but it’s difficult to see that coming at this stage.”

Meanwhile, Sunday's league finals, as well as the 1916 commemorative pageant Laochra, combined to give TG4 their biggest television audience in history, according to official TAM Ireland figures.

According to a statement from the Irish language station: “Dublin’s spectacular win over Kerry reached an audience of 621,000 while also earning TG4 a share of 38 per cent of all people viewing TV in Ireland during the final.”