LEINSTER OFF COLOUR
When there is hurling to be had, it’s easy to see why this isn’t on TV
THIS was like being caught in the wrong room at a lively party. You can hear the laughter coming from elsewhere, as the sound of people really enjoying themselves starts to feel like a taunt.
Occasionally, someone puts their head around the door but withdraws it on first contact with a flat atmosphere that is curdling into hopelessness.
Fragments of Munster hurling epics beeped sporadically in Croke Park, like little pin-pricks of light in a moonscape.
On its best days, the Leinster football championship would struggle in comparison to the daddy of provincial hurling competitions.
But in 2022, with the Munster campaign pulsing with brilliance and shocks and uncertainty, putting a Leinster double-header on the same day felt almost cruel.
There were half-hearted protests about the Croke Park action not being broadcast on TV, but given the alternatives, there was no
‘The Leinster Final may be a hard evening for Kildare’
decision to really make.
The football semi-finals were available to stream, but the time when they were central to a scheduler’s plans are long passed.
The two games yesterday went to form and there was nothing to suggest that this is a competition likely to be saved, revived or even hauled towards a state of mild interest in the near future.
More of the same, deadening predictability is actually likely, given the wretched state of the Meath challenge.
They, along with Kildare, are the counties presumed nearest to the endless victors, but there was virtually nothing we associate with the modern game at its most keenest, about their display.
That, perhaps, is the story of the day: of the four sides on view, Meath were easily the poorest.
Their tactical set-up was difficult to decipher, so whatever plan they had didn’t survive even initial contact with Dublin.
The Leinster champions in perpetuity were ahead, 0-5 to 0-0, after 10 minutes. And the game was already gone from Meath.
They got to within four points a couple of times, but then a burst of Dublin scores from some familiar names – Costello, O’Callaghan, Kilkenny, bulletins from a golden age – put the match firmly beyond them.
And there were still 50 minutes to play.
The breathless updates continued to come in from the hurling.
If Meath’s profound difficulties was the plainest lesson of the day, there were others.
Kildare are a tidy side but defensively open to the point that the Leinster final in 13 days’ time could be a hard evening for them.
They defeated Dublin in the league, and that victory was part of a campaign that included plenty of encouraging elements.
However, their failure to prevent streams of Westmeath attacks will surely have alarmed Glenn Ryan, as will the enthusiasm with which Westmeath shaved their advantage back to three points during time added on.
Kildare were comfortably the better team, but they did not register that emphatically enough on the scoreboard.
Ryan and his stellar management group were the most encouraging thing about the Kildare footballers at the start of the year, but that gutsy league campaign revealed the substance of this group. Along with the established figures like Mark Donnellan, Kevin Feeley, Paul Cribbin and Daniel Flynn, younger players have emerged, like the outstanding Darragh Kirwan.
He kicked six points yesterday and revelled in the opportunities that abounded.
The players, as well as Ryan and his selectors, Anthony Rainbow, Johnny Doyle and Dermot Earley, will hunger for more than simply giving Dublin a good game on Saturday week, but their capacity to do that will need a much surer defensive effort than the one provided here.
But Kildare’s performance will also be contingent on the force of Dublin’s challenge.
They will be justifiable and clear favourites, but given the deficiencies in Meath’s performance, it is impossible to accurately measure their levels.
They look more cohesive than during those torrid National League weeks, and as well as the familiarity of the scorers, there was also plenty of comfort for their supporters in snappy performances from James McCarthy and Brian Fenton.
Tom Lahiff and Seán Bugler were good, and the shape of a new team is emerging.
The difficulty for Dessie Farrell could be one that haunted the Paul Caffrey years: the Leinster campaign is so easy that they go into the All-Ireland series insufficiently exposed and so in danger of being caught cold.
However, this is such an unreadable championship that, should they get past Kildare, they would not be the only big name vulnerable in that way.
Kerry are everyone’s favourites based partly on performances but also partly because they are next on the rank: Tyrone look in a heap, Mayo seem to be running to stand still, and the tier containing challengers like Donegal and Galway is unproven.
That doesn’t make Dublin brilliant but it does mean that their prospects should be measured, at least in part, against the opposition.
And from what we’ve seen yet, there is no county a distant speck from their perspective.
The form team in the country is Derry, after all, so this 2022 football competition could yet enthral us.
Its Leinster division signally failed in that way yesterday.
An official crowd of 38,081 was recorded, which was 10,000 more than was being predicted beforehand.
That was down to a good Dublin walk-up crowd but it is also down to the optimism that Glenn Ryan has stoked in Kildare.
They have improved, but it doesn’t look as if they’ve done so enough to upset Dublin’s defence. Yet there could be enough clouding the outcome to draw a decent crowd
Despite itself, the Leinster championship might summon an interesting evening’s entertainment.
There wasn’t a lot of it to be had here. Even the gulls were silent as evening drew in and they swooped around an empty stadium looking for easy pickings.
But apparently even the supporters’ discarded rubbish is better at a Munster hurling match.