Leinster SFC Final: Dublin 1-17 Meath 0-4
DUBLIN are on cloud nine but Meath and the rest of Leinster remain covered by gloom, miserable and bedraggled, swept away by ‘the Blue Wave’.
Rain poured down around the final whistle but any illusions, or delusions, about a competitive encounter had been washed away long before then.
The Dubs’ dominance of this decade continued, with their ninth consecutive provincial triumph, and their 14th out of the past 15, broken only by Meath’s goal glut in the 2010 semi-final.
Jim Gavin’s men dominated this latest ‘decider’ from the outset too, at least on the scoreboard, without playing particularly well for most of the match, although Meath never looked like landing a glove on them.
And remember, this is a Meath team that topped Division Two to earn promotion back to the top flight - but the gulf in class was as big as ever.
Meath actually began well, tearing into tackles, kicking long cross-field passes to their inside forwards – but they simply could not score.
Dublin stuttered and stumbled to a five-point lead by the half hour mark, helped by some very poor shooting from their opponents.
There was one flash of Dublin at their best when skipper Stephen Cluxton bided his time before drilling a kick-out to Philly McMahon, who had raced up into midfield. He then quickly kicked on to Paul Mannion, who swung over a fine score from the right sideline.
Still, for a while it seemed like we might be looking at the lowest-scoring Leinster Final for a few years, but then Dublin did what Dublin do and cruised clear in the closing stages.
They outscored Meath by 1-8 to one point in the final third of this match, the goal coming from Con O'Callaghan in the 68th minute, but substitute Dean Rock influential as he tried to show he merits a starting slot.
The only cloud in the blues’ sky was the injury that forced off James McCarthy before the break. He had moved to midfield for this game, with McMahon – a contender for ‘man of the match’ - coming into the Dublin defence.
Meath re-jigged also, to have Shane McEntee in their midfield, and Graham Reilly in attack, but the latter was one of the worst culprits as they struggled to convert chances, along with Michael Newman. The Royals often exhibited an unwillingness to shoot, although perhaps that was understandable given that they registered 12 wides in total.
To stand any chance it was obvious that the Royals required plenty of ‘rub of the green’, but the only touches of wood they got early on were shots hitting uprights and bouncing back into play.
However, they did enjoy some good luck in that regard after 25 minutes when Paul Mannion’s penalty kick (awarded after full-back Conor McGill fouled Con O’Callaghan) came back off the base of the post, struck goalkeeper Andrew Colgan on the back, and rebounded away from goal.
McGill did much better defensive work a few minutes later, bravely leaping to fist clear a hand-pass across the ‘square’ from McCarthy with Niall Scully closing in to convert.
Despite Meath deploying their joint-captain Donal Keogan on Ciaran Kilkenny the Castleknock man still pulled the strings. Dropping deep around midfield, his perfectly-weighted hand-passes repeatedly opened up the Royals’ rearguard, including for the penalty.
However, even the Dubs were fumbling passes and kicking balls straight out in the wet conditions – but it wasn’t until the 33rd minute that Meath at last opened their account, albeit from a well-taken score by midfielder Bryan Menton.
Dublin were easing further ahead in the second period, aided by some more astonishing misses from Meath, with free-taker Ben Brennan hauled ashore after sending another simple-looking free wide.
Newman did notch a nice score, freed by a turnover to run at the Dublin defence, drift left, then drill a shot over the bar – but that only seemed to rile the hosts.
Dublin reeled off the next nine scores, including three from play by replacement Dean Rock, with the penultimate of those nine being – somehow – the game’s only goal.
Rock played a part in that too, receiving possession from fellow sub Kevin McManamon and releasing O'Callaghan, who bore down on goal from the left and lashed a right-foot shot low into the net.
Newman had the final say with a sweet score, although Rock really should have sent Dublin even further clear, but fired wide of the far post well into added time.
Still, the Dubs stroll on to the ‘Super Eights’. Since they last lost in Leinster nine years ago, their previous four Championship wins over their neighbours were by an average of nine points, including 16- and 10-point thrashings.
This trouncing brought that into double figures and few would bet against them taking their Leinster winning streak into double figures next season – or doing so by having completed the provincial and All-Ireland double again.
Meath must shake themselves off and try to prepare for round four of the qualifiers, even if they feel like they’ve gone 15 rounds with prime Mike Tyson.
Dublin: S Cluxton; D Byrne, M Fitzsimons, P McMahon (0-1); J McCaffrey (0-2), C O’Sullivan, J Small; B Fenton (0-1), J McCarthy; N Scully, C Costello (0-3, 0-1 ‘45’, 0-2 frees), B Howard (0-1); C Kilkenny (0-1), P Mannion (0-3), C O’Callaghan (1-0).
Substitutes: M D Macauley for McCarthy (32, inj.); D Rock (0-4, 0-1 free) for Howard (52); K McManamon for Costello (58); P Small for Kilkenny (62); P Andrews (0-1) for P Small (65, inj.); R O’Carroll for McCaffrey (68).
Meath: A Colgan; S Lavin, C McGill, S Gallagher; D Keogan, R Ryan, J McEntee; S McEntee; B Menton (0-1); C O’Sullivan, B McMahon, G Reilly; B Brennan, M Newman (0-3, 0-1 free), J Conlon.
Substitutes: S Tobin for Brennan (39); E Devine for Reilly (40); T O’Reilly for Conlon (54); B Dardis for S McEntee (58); S Curran for Gallagher (65); T McGovern for McMahon (65).
Yellow cards: J McEntee (16), Brennan (30), McGill (34), Gallagher (41), Dardis (66), O’Sullivan (70).
Black card: Keogan (73).
Referee: Sean Hurson (Tyrone).
Attendance: 47,027.
