Leinster SFC final: Dublin v Kildare (tomorrow, 4pm, Croke Park, live on RTÉ2)
IT’S 17 years since Mick O’Dwyer’s Kildare scored two goals in the first second half minute to reel Dublin in and win a second Leinster title in three years.
How times have changed. The Dubs won just one provincial title in the decade between their 1995 All-Ireland success and 2005, but have lost just one of their 39 Leinster championship games since.
There is no great sense that tomorrow will be the day that run comes to a halt but there is an expectation that Kildare will at least put up a respectable challenge.
After a difficult start, they have made great strides under their latest manager from the Kingdom. Cian O’Neill has stepped out of the shadows and put his own stamp on a county heading the right direction.
Tomorrow is perhaps a year, maybe two, too soon but if and when Dublin fall from the lofty perch they’ve occupied for a decade, it will most likely be the Lilywhites there to pick at the carcass.
They featured in four straight minor finals, winning three, between 2013 and 2016. Not a single player from those four teams has yet graduated to the senior starting side, which suggests that they are only going to get stronger as the years go by.
In regaining the services of Kevin Feely from the world of professional soccer, and Daniel Flynn, Paddy Brophy and Paul Cribbin – who is fit again – from the AFL, O’Neill has men in his camp that understand the world Dublin are living in.
Against Laois it was a cakewalk and against Meath, it was an excellent performance that takes Kildare into a first final in nine years.
In scoring 1-21 and 2-16, they have shown what they are about. But both those tallies were against very average defences. Meath left Cathal McNally and Daniel Flynn one-against-one inside on a gorgeous summer’s eve and the dividend was unforgiving. 2-7 from play between them, they were able to kick off right and left under little or no pressure.
Dublin won’t allow that but even in as comfortable a win as they had over Westmeath, there were obvious signs that they missed Philly McMahon.
When Westmeath got back in early to Kieran Martin, he had the beating of Michael Fitzsimons. Their decision to have Cian O’Sullivan mark John Heslin, with Jonny Cooper sitting free, was contrary to normality and they did look uncomfortable at times.
McMahon is expected to return to pick up Flynn, while Cooper will take on McNally and O’Sullivan will revert to sitting in front of them again.
In attack, they tore Westmeath to shreds, scoring 4-29 and missing a bagful of further goal chances. It all stemmed from their destruction of the underdogs’ kickouts.
That was despite having James McCarthy operating at midfield in the absence of Paul Flynn, who would be a loss if he doesn’t recover in time.
Kildare have been particularly strong in the air, with Kevin Feely taking five marks so far this summer and the Lilywhites making six in total against Meath. But it’s often not the first ball that does the damage. There is no better team at winning break ball than Dublin and if Kildare are to stand a chance, they have to commit bodies beneath their own restarts.
Ciaran Kilkenny had the best chance of all those missed goal opportunities but he could be forgiven on the back of his pace-setting performance.
Westmeath never laid a hand on him all day and Kildare cannot afford to make the same mistake. After a superb job on Graham Reilly, it looks like David Hyland will be handed the task.
And for all that Kildare’s forwards got a free run against Meath, so did Dublin’s in their semi-final. Paul Mannion kicked eight points from eight shots, allowed to cut on to his left foot far too easily every time.
Kildare put serious pressure on the ball inside their own 45 against the Royals, with Eoin Doyle sitting as an effective free man in his own defence.
There have been so many elements about Kildare’s play that have impressed over the last six months but this is a different plain. It’s just two years since they lost 5-18 to 0-14 to Dublin. It takes more than two years’ work to reverse that.
They are on the right track but this is too soon. A game for 45 minutes, but ultimately a five or six point Dublin win.
