DUBLIN TURN IT ON AS REQUIRED
Gavin’s turbo powered bench comes to the party
EVEN more than when they are sewing it into unfortunates on sunsplashed days while dancing on manicured grass, its nights like this that reveals Dublin’s greatness.
For all the talk of their privileged existence and how they get to luxuriate in home comforts, it is how they react when they are lured back onto the game’s mean streets that says so much.
And they don’t come much meaner than Omagh, with its heavy pitch and, when the mood grabs it, that edgy atmosphere.
It would be easy to understand, given all that they have achieved, if when push comes to shove on nights like this that they simply didn’t put their backs into it.
But they have shown over the past two years that when forced into a corner when on the road against a key rival they utterly refuse to take a backwards step.
It was evident two years ago on a foul night in Castlebar when a home team not short of a grudge turned up the heat but the champions refused to melt.
It was there last year in a sold-out Tralee – perhaps the only time that a regular round fixture dwarfed the actual final in terms of significance – as they came from two points down in injury time to ensure that they would replace Kerry in the history books as holders of the all-time unbeaten record.
It is easy to dismiss the significance of spring football, but it has been character building for the champions, hardening their resolve and steeling nerve for when it really matters.
Winning five All-Ireland finals this decade by an aggregate margin of seven points serves as a reminder that when games are distilled to raw desire and iced composure, they have no equals.
This merely served as another reminder.
And for all the talk of their depth, they pulled in here last night with 11 of the side which started last August’s stroll – Tyrone for their part started with eight – and yet to a man they played with the eagerness of rookies on the make.
They were in a hole-of-sorts here when they lost Niall Scully to a second yellow card 10 minutes into the second-half when the scores were level.
Their response was as brilliant as it was predictable. Three points – from Brian Fenton, Kevin McManamon and Ciaran Kilkenny in five, admittedly wind-assisted, minutes and this thing was done.
So, they were not pushed hard by a home team whose impotent ways were magnified in the second-half, when it took them 27 minutes and six wides before Niall Sludden kicked their first point. But that should not take from how the champions imposed their will and class – the latter best exemplified by Kilkenny who reminded here that he cut his teeth as a full-forward at underage level.
His 26th minute goal was brilliantly taken, in the process ensuring that Tyrone’s wind-assisted half-time advantage – built on an 8th minute Cathal McShane goal was limited to two points (1-7 to 1-5).
And, in keeping with how Dublin tend to flex their muscle to intimidate – they finished here by sticking to the usual template, releasing terror from the bench.
Colm Basquel came on with eight minutes remaining but yet in that time still managed to squeeze out three points, while coming up with the turnover to set up Eoghan O’Gara to find the net with his first touch.
It is the ease, almost as if they’re flicking a switch, that they click into turbo-charge mode that can overwhelm.
This, after all, qualified as a top four meeting last night, but Tyrone and Mickey Harte will know, even this early in the year, that Dublin have their number and, most likely, everyone else’s too.
If Tyrone are to really bridge what is now a yawning chasm, they will have to find a new way, one that will allow them to score more than 11 points – which is their running average in the championship against Dublin, Kerry and Mayo over the last 10 years.
But it is a little too easy to just assume that Harte is now behind the tactical curve, when there are real questions as to whether he has the quality to take a more ambitious approach when facing the very best.
He, at least, bowed to populism last night, heeding the megaphoned calls for Lee Brennan – the All-Ireland under-21 winner who has top-scored in two of the last three championships – to give the Trillick ace a rare start.
And in doing so, he left Tyrone supporters in the 9,465 wondering why Harte has used their brightest young attacking talent so sparingly.
He excelled here as one of half of a two-man strike attack; Conor McAliskey the other who also missed that semi-final defeat last August – ensuring that this time Tyrone had some bite to match their defensive bark.
His prints were on 1-4 of Tyrone’s 1-7 first-half tally and his quality dripped from his 26th minute point, when his dummy solo left Daly clawing at air, before splitting the posts.
The reality is that if Brennan delivers on the promise he showed here, it will prove far more significant where Tyrone – pointless after two games – finish this spring. DUBLIN: S Cluxton; P McMahon, M Fitzsimons, D Daly; J McCarthy (S Carthy, 68), J Cooper, J Small (D Byrne, 45); B Fenton, MD Macauley; N Scully, C Kilkenny, B Howard; K McManamon, P Mannion (C Basquel, 62), D Rock (E O’Gara, 65). Scorers: C Kilkenny 1-2, D Rock 0-4 (3f), C Basquel 0-3 (1f), K McManamon 0-2, B Fenton, J McCarthy 0-1 each. TYRONE: N Morgan; P Hampsey, C McCarron, HP McGeary (M McKernan, 22); T McCann (M Bradley, 63), A McCrory (R McNamee, ht), C McLaughlin (R McNabb, 56); C McShane, D McClure (C McCann, 48); M Donnelly, N Sludden, R Donnelly (F Burns, 58); L Brennan, C McAliskey, P Harte. Scorers: L Brennan 0-6 (3f), C MacShane 1-1, C McAlsikey 0-2, P Harte, N Sludden 0-1. REfEREE: M Deegan (Laois).