Leinster Senior Football
Championship final:
Rhode 0-6 St Vincent's 1-13 DUBLIN champions St Vincent's justified their favourites' tag with a dominant victory over Rhode in the Leinster club final in Navan yesterday.
Defeat for the Offaly champions in provincial deciders is becoming a regular occurrence, with a number of yesterday's starting team suffering their fourth Leinster final defeat since 2006. Put simply, Rhode had no answer to the pace and power of the Mossy Quinn-inspired All-Ireland champions.
Vincent's hit the ground running with Gavin Burke and Ciaran Dorney splitting the posts before veteran attacker Quinn found the back of the Rhode net after 12 minutes after a devastating move.
The Dublin men were in total control and the writing was on the wall when it took Rhode until the 23rd minute to register their first score Niall McNamee's point cut the deficit to seven points. Their wayward shooting was punished when Vincent's retained possession and the Metropolitan side entered the break leading 1-5 to 0-2.
When Pauric Sullivan was dismissed for clashing with Allstar Diarmuid Connolly four minutes after the restart, Rhode's task became insurmountable.
Rhode were powerless to stop the Vincent's juggernaut as the evergreen Quinn added a point in injury-time to wrap up a comprehensive victory.
St Vincent's captain Ger Brennan accepted the cup and, despite the celebrations, the Dublin side know an All-Ireland semi-final against Corofin in February will pose a much sterner examination.