Leinster Senior Football Championship semi-final
Dublin 0-14 Kildare 0-12
THE issue of Dublin playing so many of their games in Croke Park will be at the centre of the national conversation this week, after Glenn Ryan highlighted the many different ways that he felt the Boys in Blue are favoured by playing at GAA headquarters following their agonising two-point defeat in yesterday’s Leinster semi-final.
“I’m frustrated we got beaten, absolutely, but it’s meant to be a neutral venue, they say. It’s not” the fumed.
“There’s the familiarity that Dublin have with here, that no other team gets a chance, and it does benefit them, and I’m probably echoing the thoughts of most other counties.
“It’s always our players that get told to put the gumshield in by a fourth official or a fifth official.
“It’s always the fourth official telling our sideline to maybe step back a bit, when a mentor from the Dublin team is actually standing in ours. And then you see a sideline ball that’s nowhere near a sideline ball given against you.
“There was no one incident in the game that swung it, and I thought Fergal Kelly did a very good job on it. You can talk about sour grapes if you like, but it’s a familiarity thing”, he said.
By any measure, Dublin were there to be beaten yesterday, as they produced a lethargic performance that was in keeping with their early-season League form, as opposed to late in the campaign when they seemed to find their feet.
Paul Mannion was their only scorer when he drew the sides level at 0-3 apiece after 24 minutes. Kildare’s defensive intensity and collective effort really unsettled Dessie Farrell’s side, and with Ben McCormack, Darragh Kirwan and Paddy Woodgate shooting well at the other end of the field, they were full value for their 0-8 to 0-6 half-time lead.
Five minutes into the second half, when McCormack and Woodgate (from a 45) doubled their advantage, Lily White supporters felt their hop transforming into giddy optimism.
Even when Seán Bugler and Colm Basquel cancelled out those scores, they weren’t ‘trademark’ Dublin points, patiently engineered and crafted, and finished from high-percentage spots. Instead they were speculative efforts, Bugler from distance and Basquel from the sideline, and there were plenty more shots like them that never came close to the target, much to the derision of the Kildare crowd.
However Kildare’s attacking play couldn’t match their defensive work, and while Dublin’s scores came in dribs and drabs, Kildare’s dried up entirely. Lee Gannon, Con O’Callaghan and Cian Murphy tied up the game and while Neil Flynn broke Kildare’s drought with a wonderful kick off the right to edge them back in front, but they needed to hold that lead or build on it to make Dublin sweat, and instead that was to be their only score in the last 25 minutes, with Cormac Costello and Lorcan O’Dell the men that delivered the winning scores for Dublin after that.
“It wasn’t a scare, we knew it was going to be that way” was Dessie Farrell’s verdict.
“Kildare had a lot to play for. We were flat at times and off colour in certain dimensions of our game, but I’m very happy with the way we dug it out in the end” he said.
Dublin S Cluxton; D Newcombe, D Byrne, L Gannon (0-1); J Small, C Murphy (0-1), T Lahiff; B Fenton, J McCarthy; R McGarry (0-1), S Bugler (0-1), C Kilkenny (0-1); P Mannion (0-3), C O’Callaghan (0-2, 0-1f), C Basquel (0-1).
Subs C Costello (0-1f) for McGarry (h-t), J McCaffrey (0-1) for Lahiff (h-t), L O’Dell (0-1) for Basquel (50), P Small for Mannion (58), D Rock for Bugler (65).
Yellow cards McCarthy (55), Bugler (63)
Kildare M Donnellan; E Doyle, M O’Grady, P McDermott; D Hyland, K Flynn, S Ryan; K O’Callaghan, A Masterson; A Beirne, B McCormack (0-2), J Sargent; P Woodgate (0-4, 0-2f, 0-1 45), D Kirwan (0-2), J Robinson (0-3f)
Subs P Cribbin for Beirne (46), N Flynn (0-1) for Robinson (48), D Flynn for Kirwan (56), K Feely for Masterson (63), J Hyland for McCormack (69).
Referee F Kelly (Longford)
