O’Dowd complimented Dublin on their success when he addressed the media after the game and said that it was up to all other teams to reach the standard of performance.

The Meath manager then returned to the press centre shortly afterwards when it emerged that it was claimed that Burke had been the victim of a bite.

“Just after going back to the dressing room after speaking to you (the media) and I see the doctor dealing with his finger and he has gone to the Dublin dressing room to talk to the Dublin doctor which is the protocol to deal with in terms of a bite in terms of blood being transferred from one person to the other.”

Dublin manager Jim Gavin said he was unaware of the biting incident when it was put to him after the match.

“That game there? It’s the first I’m hearing of it,” said Gavin when he was questioned about it at the media briefing.

Gavin said that the Dublin performance was pleased with the way his side performed as they picked up their ninth Leinster title in ten years.

“We could have closed it out a bit better but for patches on that game we strung together some good scores and from a coaching perspective we would be happy with some of the plays, the performances of our defence and midfield was impressive in parts.

“It was a very physical game, a great intensity shown by both teams, probably a bit surprised by the margin of the score in the end, but Meath never give up and we were very conscious of that going into the second-half,” added Gavin.

Meath manager O’Dowd said they would have no difficulty now re-adjusting to the qualifiers but he was disappointed with their display.

“We knew Dublin would show us respect and we were expecting one of their best displays of the summer which I think they gave but we are bitterly disappointed with the performance we gave because I don’t think it reflected us properly.

“There is a gap in physicality and intensity. We had some outstanding individual displays but as a collective Dublin had a higher standard,” said O’Dowd.

He said that the disallowing of Stephen Bray’s goal was a blow in the first-half although he admitted it did not have a huge bearing on the outcome.

“But six points would have been reduced to three and that would have been good for our momentum at that time,” he added.