BLUES CRUISE
Dublin 3-22 Offaly 0-11 LEINSTER SFC SEMI-FINAL
KEVIN EGAN
BY
IF WEXFORD hadn’t come a cropper in Antrim, this performance from Dublin might have been seen in a very different light.
Micheal Donoghue’s side were passive and inaccurate in the first half, briefly falling six points behind before managing to hit something between third and fourth gear in the second half.
That still wasn’t enough to put a valiant Carlow side to the sword, but a fortunate goal from Fergal Whitely ensured that Dublin didn’t come a cropper on a sticky road trip, unlike their Wexford rivals in Belfast.
“We came down here last year and the game was very tight for most of the game” said Donoghue afterwards.
“It’s a tough place to come and we were expecting very much the same here today.
“Carlow started way better than us, they had a few points of a lead at halftime and they probably deserved to go in a few more points ahead.
“We put a huge emphasis on starting well, but we didn’t get that and we were 0-9 to 0-3 down.
“We left ourselves with an awful lot to do and in fairness to the lads, we addressed a few things at half time and we were much better in the second half”.
Dublin didn’t start well, and some of their supporters must have felt like they didn’t start at all. All six of Carlow’s starting forwards had scored from play by half-time, while at the other end of the field, Carlow were winning turnovers and forcing poor shots from the Dubs – yielding seven wides, one off the post and two shots
Carlow’s Martin Kavanagh collects the ball in Dublin’s win yesterday dropped short. ΩCrucially, even though they trailed by 0-13 to 0-9 at the interval and had to hurl into a low sun after half-time, the Dubs didn’t let the panic levels get too high.
Conor Burke came into it, scoring three from play, while points from deep from Paddy Smyth and Daire Gray kept things ticking over.
Dublin began to dominate Carlow’s puckout and without ever making much of an impact close to goal, they edged in front, before delivering a sucker punch in the form of Fergal Whitely’s goal in the 60th minute to put some daylight between the sides.
“For us, and any team in the competition, if you want to progress you’re going to have to go through the gears and step up the levels every day you play. That’s the big learning for us today” said Donoghue.
“We’ve had a good week, but you want more. We’ve two weeks off before our first home game against Antrim who got a huge win today, so it’s about recovery to get ready.”
A 20-POINT victory for Dublin, a 14th consecutive Leinster final place secured and another provincial rival left seeing stars after a dose of capital punishment.
But boss Dessie Farrell has warned his Dublin players that if they’re to retain their All-Ireland title, standards will need to be even higher than what we’ve seen so far.
Paul Mannnion pulled the strings as the holders cruised to yet another provincial final – and their first win over Offaly since last playing them in 2007.
All Star Colm Basquel, Con O’Callaghan and Niall Scully had strong games too and struck the goals.
The Dubs had a dozen different scorers in all during yet another landslide win for them in the provincial championship.
Their reward is a Leinster final crack at Louth on May 12 back at Croke Park, a repeat of the 2023 decider.
Principles
But aside from playing up their “consistency across the 70 minutes” and sticking to “our principles of play”, Farrell wasn’t overly excited.
He said the reality is that the All-Ireland holders will have to hit new levels of performance if they’re to retain the Sam Maguire.
He didn’t mention Jim McGuinness and Mickey Harte by name but appeared to be talking about them when he highlighted how ‘new managers’ have raised standards this year.
Farrell said: “I’ve seen a big improvement in the standard of the competition out there, in terms of what other teams are doing.
“It comes from new managers in different counties and managers who have been there already who have evolved their teams’ performance to another level.
“So I have no doubt, and we are very clear on this as a group, that what was done last year and the level we got to last year, will not be good enough this year.
“The challenge is there for us to improve for sure.”