Rampant Dublin left wondering how good they really are

Leinster SFC / Dublin 2-23 Longford 0-10: Dublin versus Meath, live at Croke Park, June 5th. Maybe now Paul Caffrey won't mind seeing that in print. After a game like this, can anyone help but look ahead? Watching Dublin get past Longford yesterday was less like the opening hurdle of the championship and more like the closing stages of an execution. Not something to look back on with great indulgence.at Croke Park

In the end, it could only be observed with grim fascination. Dublin were so patently superior that they frequently produced dazzling and beautifully-worked scores. Longford were so hopelessly inadequate to the task that they appeared doomed no matter how badly their opposition played. It was like a chapter straight out of Hemingway: a slow death in the afternoon.

It was a game overpowered by inevitability. For about five minutes it looked like there wasn't much between them, but, as it turned out, that was just the colours of their jerseys.

By half-time, Dublin were up 1-8 to 0-5 and had hardly broken sweat. It was perfectly obvious that Longford didn't just require a fresh strategy to force their way back into the game: they needed lawyers, guns and money.

Dublin tagged on 15 points with stunning regularity in the second half, and a typically polished goal from Alan Brogan, who was one of several candidates for man of the match. Longford managed five more points and maybe half a chance for a goal. The 19-point margin of victory was no fluke. It could have been worse.

A grand total of 39,852 came along for the day, and those who sat through the opening match between Kildare and Wicklow were easily fooled into thinking another championship epic might await.

Damn Wicklow for stealing all the excitement from the air.

Caffrey went home afterwards with his team-sheet only barely coloured with 20 neat ticks. Everyone marked present, from the starting 15 to the five substitutes. Assuming all injuries are kept at bay, lay your bets now on the same 15 starting against Meath. If there was any weaknesses in Caffrey's selection, Longford certainly didn't help identify it.

Eleven Dublin players scored, from number seven to 15, plus two substitutes. Most of the talk coming into the game focused on Caffrey's half-forward line selection of Colin Moran, Alan Brogan and Bryan Cullen, an area that had been sending out some warning signals in recent years.

But they proved so neat and tidy yesterday that only a mad man would start tampering with them now. Cullen was typically hard-working and industrious in his new assignment, and gave Dominic Glennon such a roasting that he was cooked after 33 minutes.

Moran played enough ball to suggest he is back to his best, and sent over a fine point on the stroke of half-time. Brogan eventually moved to corner forward, but not before making a lasting impression at centre forward, from where he scored Dublin's opening point after 60 seconds.

Ciarán Whelan probably had his best first half for Dublin in a long while, breaking forward for his customary point on 20 minutes, while Shane Ryan's influence on the game grew to exciting heights. The only problem there was the paltry challenge of the Longford midfield, reflected by the fact that both players were changed before the 45th-minute mark.

Dublin were still a little slow to start, allowing the scores to be levelled three times in the first 20 minutes. Conal Keaney's goal on 21 minutes changed all that.

Set up by Tomás Quinn, Keaney took off from outside the 20-metre line before firing the ball like a pistol shot into the Longford net. Keaney punched the air with obvious satisfaction, and from there went on to deliver his finest display so far in a Dublin football jersey. Even his finest days in the hurling jersey would struggle to come close. He ended up with 1-4, with his four points all coming in the second half.

In a way, Keaney was on trial yesterday, because if he didn't deliver there was a line of players on the bench waiting to take his place. After a performance like this, Keaney will have to do an awful lot wrong against Meath to lose his place.

Tomás Quinn again proved a reliable free-taker, and also chipped over a beautiful sideline on 11 minutes. Jason Sherlock did plenty of running about, but, of all the forwards, will feel a little bit under-rewarded by his solitary point on 50 minutes.

All this was a profound contrast to Longford's scoring ability. Without Padraic Davis they would have been even more dismal, and while Brian Kavanagh and Paul Barden showed flashes of potential they never got close to unsettling the Dublin defence.

The great hopes that Niall Sheridan would deliver a goal or two quickly evaporated as well. On six minutes he caught one good ball over the head of Paddy Christie, only for Stephen Cluxton to snuff out the danger. Sheridan got one half-chance after that, but in the end had to be content with one point.

Longford's disintegration was thorough in the second half, as Coman Goggins also joined in on the scoring act. Barry Cahill did well at centre back and will improve as his fitness returns, and Stephen O'Shaughnessy had what is best described as the perfect debut: no mistakes, but no great challenges either.

By the time the final whistle put Longford out of their agony, some of the Dublin supporters were spilling out to James Gill's and The Sunset House. See yez' in three weeks.

DUBLIN: 1 S Cluxton; 2 P Griffin, 3 P Christie, 4 S O'Shaughnessy; 5 P Casey, 6 B Cahill, 7 C Goggins (0-1); 8 C Whelan (0-1), 9 S Ryan (0-2); 10 C Moran (0-1), 11 A Brogan (1-3), 12 B Cullen (0-2); 13 J Sherlock (0-1), 14 C Keaney (1-4), 15 T Quinn (0-5, three frees, one sideline). Subs: 24 M Vaughan (0-2, both frees) for Moran (50 mins), 23 D O'Mahony for Whelan (58 mins), 19 D O'Callaghan (0-1) for Quinn (59 mins), 18 D Homan for Keaney (64 mins), 20 S Connell for Brogan (67 mins).

LONGFORD: 1 D Sheridan; 2 D Brady, 3 C Conefry, 4 E Ledwith; 6 D Glennon, 7 D Reilly, 5 A O'Connor; 8 P O'Hara, 9 B McElvaney; 10 J Martin (0-1), 11 P Barden, 12 P Dowd; 13 B Kavanagh (0-1), 14 N Sheridan (0-1), 15 P Davis (0-7, six frees). Subs: 20 S Lynch for Glennon (33 mins), 18 M Connor for McElvaney (41 mins), 21 T Glendenning for O'Hara, 19 D Corcoran for Lynch (58 mins), 17 M Lennon for Martin (59 mins).

Referee: P Russell (Tipperary).