Dubs daydream their way to victory as Leinster withers On the vine...
ANOTHER afternoon in the painfully slow death of the Leinster provincial football championship saw Dublin sleepwalk their way to a 3-22 to 0-11 win over Offaly at Croke Park.
Prior to the ball being thrown in this year’s competition, Leinster Council Chairman Derek Kent had declared his province’s championship was ‘alive and kicking’, but the only one kicking here at the death was Colm Basquel.
In firing home the All-Ireland champions’ third goal, he sealed Dublin 41st consecutive win in the Leinster championship, in the process qualifying for a 14th consecutive decider where they will meet Louth in the final. That would be the same Louth team they beat by 21 points in last year’s decider, ensuring Leinster’s showpiece game in a fortnight’s time will once more be reduced to a box-ticking exercise that is fooling no one.
Certainly not those at the turnstiles, with just under 22,000 paying in to watch yesterday’s double-header, once more shining a light on the curious wisdom to fix those games for a stadium that echoed pretty much like a funeral parlour for what was supposedly the main act.
It is likely to be the last time that Croke Park will stage the semi-finals as it is fast reaching the point that there are any number of ‘intimate’ venues in the province that are capable of hosting.
As for how his game rolled? Well, pretty much like the previous 40. There was one difference – this was the first time in that run that Offaly were exposed to being humbled by the champions, but now that they have bought the t-shirt, they are hardly likely to wear it well or often.
Okay, it could be argued that despite the predictably ugly scoreline at the end that they hardly deserved a 20-point beating, with Dessie Farrell’s charges ratcheting up the pain to rack up 1-5 without reply at the death.
The flip side to that is Dublin mostly played with the handbrake on, with perhaps the only significant moment being the sight of their captain James McCarthy making his first start since last July’s All-Ireland final win over Kerry.
It was done and dusted long before half-time. Dublin led by four points before Keith O’Neill kicked a sumptuous point in the 16th minute.
Indeed, O’Neill was the one Offaly player who could have easily been confused for a Dublin one and he had three points to his name by half-time, at which stage his
team trailed by 1-10 to 0-4. Inevitably, it was Con O’Callaghan who drew first significant blood with Dublin’s opening goal, while providing the assist for Niall Scully to roll in their second.
Meanwhile, the draw for the group stages of the All-Ireland SFC series and the Tailteann Cup will take place tomorrow.
The Sam Maguire seedings: First Seeds (provincial winners): Kerry/Clare, Galway/Mayo, Dublin/Louth, Armagh/ Donegal; second seeds (provincial finalists): Kerry/Clare, Galway/Mayo, Dublin/Louth, Armagh/Donegal; third seeds: Derry, Tyrone, Monaghan, Roscommon, Fourth seeds: Cavan, Cork, Meath, Westmeath.
The Tailteann Cup: First Seeds: Down, Fermanagh, Kildare, Sligo; Second seeds: Antrim, Offaly, Laois, Leitrim; third seeds: Wicklow, Wexford, Limerick, Longford; fourth seeds: Carlow, London, Tipperary, Waterford.