LEINSTER SFC SEMI-FINAL Dublin 4-26 Westmeath 0-11: KILDARE WILL be hoping criticism of their provincial final opponents Dublin is sparing given the champions' response to shortcomings in their display against Meath three weeks ago. Then, failure to take chances was registered in 17 wides and a series of comical finishes.
Whatever the work done since in shooting practice wrought a remarkable transformation, as the champions restricted the wides to single digits and riddled Westmeath with 4-26 in yesterday’s Leinster football semi-final at Croke Park before a disappointing crowd of 51,458.
A year ago the midlanders, still the last county to defeat Dublin in the province, lost this fixture by two points. For most people yesterday was going to be closer to that match than the league meeting in March when an already-relegated Westmeath sank like a stone, losing by 27 points.
Instead the match ended up as a carbon copy of the spring edition right down to the margin. If Dublin have improved under new management – and that has yet to be fully proved – Westmeath have spent the last year in reverse gear.
Injuries to key players have been a major impediment and yesterday came too quickly for the likes of Martin Flanagan, Donal O’Donoghue and Dessie Dolan, none of whom looked recovered even if the first two started – both being replaced after half an hour.
In general Tomás Ó Flatharta’s team looked short of fitness and with the match dead as a contest, virtually after 10 minutes, there was little to sustain the players as the awful reality unfolded.
Dublin were fast and sharp in their approach work, transferring at speed and taking their scores efficiently. Jason Sherlock kicked six points from play, his biggest championship total, and played a lively role in knitting together attacking movements as well as tirelessly showing for ball. All of the forwards got on the score sheet from play but for Bernard Brogan it was his most lethal afternoon in the Dublin jersey.
As the most highly regarded finisher in the county, the younger Brogan hasn’t always brought his shooting boots but the potential was always clear.
Yesterday he helped himself to 2-8, five points from frees, and spelled trouble for Westmeath whenever he got on the ball.
Both of his goals came from opposition error. The first, on 27 minutes, saw John Smith getting caught out on a short kick-out directed to him. As he tried to find his captain, John Keane, Brogan appeared, intercepted and raced in towards goal before producing a shotgun finish to the corner of the Canal End goal.
In the 51st minute Westmeath goalkeeper Gary Connaughton saved a penalty from Conal Keaney. The shot was poorly struck after Keaney had done well to win possession only to be brought down by Michael Ennis. From a resulting line ball, the dropping kick was completely missed by Connaughton, leaving Brogan a happy bystander with an empty net.
That brought the score to 2-20 to 0-7 and signalled the start of a highly uncomfortable final quarter for the challengers, who were taken for two more goals – the first in the 58th minute after the unlikely figure of Darren Magee was on hand to top off a slick move involving replacements Shane Ryan and Tomás Quinn and the second three minutes later when the new-look, bulkier Quinn muscled his way in from the left to score the fourth goal.
These scores were merely grace notes to a victory that had been inevitable from the early stages. Sweeping, well-worked moves from Ross McConnell at centrefield and combining Keaney and Bernard Brogan culminated in two points in the first minute.
McConnell was the source of another couple of scoring moves, as Dublin continued to turn the screw and reached 0-8 without reply after little over 10 minutes.
The only wide recorded by that stage was an overly-ambitious ball from Alan Brogan in the direction of Sherlock, which ran wide.
Westmeath had chances to score but lacked the composure to take them and in a blur the match raced away from them. Their A-game is based on an industrious, suffocating covering game that last year established one of the best defensive units in football. They didn’t score an awful lot but were very hard to penetrate.
Yesterday they were far from their best and given their average scoring total, the match was going to be hard won from the end of the first quarter by which stage they had already shipped 10 points.
Dublin were rampant. McConnell and Magee ran riot around the middle and Barry Cahill and Ger Brennan pushed up whenever they could from the half backs. In attack Alan Brogan pulled the strings as well as kicking four points and all of the forwards combined so effectively that Westmeath were too often chasing shadows.
The poverty of the opposition will have to colour Dublin’s reading of what on the face of it is a spectacular improvement on last year’s semi-final. Kildare’s athleticism and resolve will provide a far sterner test of the sweeping forward routines and Dermot Earley has been setting the standard at centrefield so far this championship.
Yesterday’s largely inexperienced full-back line was the most pressurised line of the field for Dublin. Westmeath corner forwards John Connellan and Conor Lynam scored what in any circumstances would be a highly respectable 0-4 and 0-3 from play off teenage debutant Rory O’Carroll and the more seasoned David Henry, respectively.
Denis Bastick didn’t concede anything from play against Denis Glennon but the Westmeath full forward had chances and played curiously deep in the second half and the certainty is that the new Dublin full back will be more sorely tried in the weeks to come.
But in the meantime Dublin have reached a fifth successive Leinster final and are one match from making it five provincial titles in a row, a feat not achieved since the halcyon days of the 1970s.
The team has been overhauled and now operates off a stronger panel. Improvements have yet to be seriously tested but indicators to date are encouraging.
DUBLIN: 1. S Cluxton; 2. D Henry, 3. D Bastick, 4. R O'Carroll; 5. P Griffin (capt.), 6. G Brennan, 7. B Cahill (0-1); 8. R McConnell (0-1), 9. D Magee (1-0); 10. P Flynn (0-1), 11. A Brogan (0-4), 12. D Connolly (0-1); 13. C Keaney (0-3, two frees), 14. B Brogan (2-8, five points frees), 15. J Sherlock (0-6). Subs: 21. P Burke for A Brogan (51 mins), 23. T Quinn (1-1)for Keaney (54 mins), 20. B Cullen for Brennan (58 mins), 18. C Whelan for Magee (61 mins), 22. S Ryan for B Brogan (61 mins). Yellow card: Flynn (43 mins).
WESTMEATH: 1. G Connaughton; 3. K Gavin, 2. F Boyle, 4. J Keane (capt.); 6. D Heavin, 5. M Ennis, 7. D O'Donoghue; 9. D Duffy, 8. M Flanagan; 10. F Wilson, 11. J Smith, 12. D Harte; 13. J Connellan (0-4), 14. D Glennon (0-3, all frees), 15. C Lynam (0-3). Subs: 17. D Healy for O'Donoghue (30 mins), 25. D O'Shaughnessy (0-1)for Flanagan (30 mins), 22. D Dolan for Wilson (49 mins), 23. P Sharry for Heavin (57 mins), 18. W Murtagh for Ennis (62 mins). Yellow card: Ennis (50 mins).
Referee: J White(Donegal).
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