Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
DEJA BLUE AT HQ
It’s seven Leinster titles in a row for Dubs, 12 in 13 years, as Lilywhites are hit with the old one-two in 90 crazy seconds
JUST before he lifted the Delaney Cup once again, Stephen Cluxton spoke with yearning of the contest that almost was at Croke Park.
Even Dublin are dying for a real contender to give them a challenge in Leinster at this stage. And for 90 seconds from the throw-in, the huge crowd at Headquarters thought maybe this could be the day.
Daniel Flynn hit the game’s first score before Kildare’s captain Eoin Doyle rose high to win possession and race down the touchline under the Hogan Stand.
Intent on testing Dublin’s full-back line early, Doyle hoisted a high ball in for Tommy Moolick to contest. The midfielder won it, turned into space – and instead of rattling the net, failed to trouble Cluxton with a weak effort.
Following up, Cathal Mcnally’s shot was blocked.
With 10 minutes on the clock, it took Dublin about 90 seconds to dismantle any thoughts of a provincial battle.
Reminiscent of Kilkenny hurlers at their deadliest, the Dubs struck twice in succession to deliver a dagger to the heart of Lilywhite hopes.
Cian
O’neill’s men only have themselves to blame for such defensive naivety. Ciaran Kilkenny couldn’t believe the space opening up in front of Dean Rock and James Mccarthy to put them in on goal.
Rock had no-one but ‘keeper Mark Donnellan to beat as he rolled his right foot shot into the corner. As Flynn illustrated later, you need a cool head in front of Hill 16 to score a goal.
Then Mccarthy had work to do in terms of cutting inside full-back David Hyland, but his shot through Donnellan’s legs had the same result.
Suddenly the gap between the sides was nine points. In fairness to Kildare, they played well in patches to keep the differential at that when the final whistle went – though Paddy Brophy’s late goal and Paul Mannion’s disallowed one had something to do with that. And so the Dubs’ recordbreaking year continues to rack up the milestones. This was the Blues’ 55th senior Leinster title success – an unprecedented seventh on the spin.
It was also their 12th final win in the last 13 years, the Meath-louth final debacle the only respite from their complete dominance.
Kildare are the vanguard of the resistance emerging to challenge the status quo but the day when Dublin is toppled in their own dominion still looks a long time off.
Certainly the Lilywhites will take encouragement heading into their qualifier against Monaghan or Armagh on the back of winning the second quarter by nine points to four.
Although they’ve earned promotion from Division Two, Kildare are relatively inexperienced and can improve. Whether they can rally in time for the qualifiers remains to be seen.
At the same time Dublin missed a flurry of scoring opportunities in that period as complacency took hold.
A plus point for Gavin was the performance of Con O’callaghan, who took over the free-taking responsibilities after Dean Rock was black carded in the 23rd minute and scored 12 points.
Another was the sharp display of Bernard Brogan, who made hay in Rock’s place to push his claim for a starting spot in the All-ireland series.
Yet as O’neill pointed out afterwards, Jim Gavin will have plenty to study in terms of the game footage.
While Philly Mcmahon was a late inclusion and Cian O’sullivan was restored to his old position at full-back – the sweeper role was ditched to keep tabs on the pacy Flynn – the Dubs’ full-back line looked vulnerable under the high ball.
There was that first minute chance for Moolick, but also the one in second half injury time that Brophy dispatched.
For those who backed the Dubs to beat the nine point handicap, it was a killer to see Mannion’s goal wrongly ruled out at the death.
But the blue machine marches on, regardless.