Champions signal intent

Leinster SFC Final/Dublin 1-15 Offaly 0-9: It started like a disaster in the offing for Dublin but by the end of yesterday's Bank of Ireland Leinster final the form book was in order and the champions could credibly feel their higher ambitions had been strengthened.

Nonetheless Offaly gave it a good shot for much of the match and were unlucky to lose by nine points. For a team that was wiped out around midfield they clung on tenaciously and created good attacking platforms.

Their highly rated two-man inside line of Niall McNamee and Thomas Deehan had a mixed afternoon, occasionally bristling with menace but also being less economical with some chances than the standards they had set this season would have suggested.

Between them they fired Offaly off to a great start, three points up within 12 minutes. Dublin failed to get on the board until the 14th minute and for all the sweeping movement and more varied threat up front, were not registering on the scoreboard.

The champions were, however, putting pressure on their opponents. Conal Keaney finished off an intricate and fast movement by rattling the ball off the inside off the post only for the shot to canon across to safety.

There were reassuring aspects for Dublin all the same. Ciaran Whelan had an excellent match, sustaining the performance of fielding and support play and with Shane Ryan running tirelessly for Stephen Cluxton's well-placed kickouts, the team were dominating the middle.

Behind them Bryan Cullen was in control and helped hold the defence together when Offaly's flying start was troubling Paul Griffin and David Henry in the corners and Neville Coughlan's ball-winning and distribution was creating chances out of scraps.

Cullen played a free role for the final quarter after Alan McNamee had been sent off for two yellow cards and positioned himself in front of Griffin and Henry although at times he seemed a little too advanced for effective intervention.

If there was one quality that Dublin really made count, that was the strength of the attack. Even though Declan Lally, a late replacement for Kevin Bonner, and Ray Cosgrove struggled to make an imprint - the former too loose in his use of the ball and the latter not sufficiently in possession - there was sufficient threat to suggest that once the team tightened its grip it would find the scores to put the match away.

And that was how matters progressed. During the barren phase when scores were hard to come by, Tomás Quinn kept things ticking with three of the six first-half points.

Crucially when Offaly took the lead again immediately on the restart it was Quinn who regained control of the match, with a sequence of four unanswered points, three of them frees, to push Dublin into a burgeoning lead of three, 0-10 to 0-7.

At that stage Alan Brogan took the floor with three fine points in 11 minutes to crush Offaly's attempts to get back into the match with a couple of points.

Fatally for the challengers they were also beginning to miss chances so Brogan's marksmanship was doubly demoralising. The constant menace posed by his pace was also an anxiety for the defence and switching the point of Dublin's attack.

Ironically it was after the sending-off that Dublin temporarily lost momentum and Offaly reduced the deficit to three, 0-9 to 0-12, on the hour before Brogan and Keaney cancelled out the concessions.

The finale came with a two-minute blast from Jason Sherlock whose work in getting on the ball and moving it had helped sustain Dublin during edgier periods of the match, yielding 1-1.

The goal came in the 67th minute following a killer ball from Whelan into Brogan whose run drew in the two remaining defenders. A quick flip to Sherlock and a decisive finish into the Hill goal concluded the formalities. Offaly were unhappy about some of referee Marty Duffy's decisions they felt unduly benefited Dublin. One potential act of leniency saw Cluxton escape with a yellow card at the end of the first half just as Offaly replacement Cathal Daly - brought in for Scott Brady after one Dublin move too many had hurtled down the central corridor of the defence - was closing in on what looked like a scoring pass.

The Dublin goalkeeper who otherwise had an excellent match, raced out and ploughed into Daly, bringing him down. To add insult to injury Niall McNamee put the close-in free wide, reviving memories of his nightmare miss from a similar position in last year's narrow defeat by Laois.

It's hard to know how the defeat will play with Offaly who must have felt a surge of possibility in the first quarter. Their reward is another tilt at neighbours Laois in the final qualifier round. Dublin progress to next month's All-Ireland quarter-final. The result suggests it was a little easier than it actually was but there was enough about the performance to encourage the belief that the Leinster champions can at least surpass a final eight finish, which has been the high-water mark of the last couple of years.

DUBLIN: 1. S Cluxton; 4. P Griffin, 3. B Cahill, 2. D Henry; 7. C Goggins, 6. B Cullen (capt.), 5. P Casey; 9. S Ryan, 8. C Whelan; 22. D Lally, 13. J Sherlock (1-1), 12. R Cosgrove; 11. A Brogan (0-4), 10. C Keaney (0-3, one free), 15. T Quinn (0-7, four frees). Subs: 20. S Connell for Cosgrove (57 mins), 19. D O'Callaghan for Lally (62 mins), 18. D Magee for Quinn (68 mins), 25. C Moran for Goggins (70 mins), 23. S O'Shaughnessy for Griffin (71 mins). Dublin - Yellow: S Cluxton (35 mins), B Cullen (35 mins), C Whelan (54 mins), B Cahill (56 mins).

OFFALY: 1. P Kelly; 2. G Rafferty, 3. S Sullivan, 4. N Grennan; 5. P McConway, 6. S Brady, 7. K Slattery (capt.); 8. C McManus (0-2, one free and one 45), 9. A McNamee (0-1); 11. N Coughlan, 14. P Kellaghan; 10. D Hunt; 13. T Deehan (0-2), 12. J Reynolds, 15. N McNamee (0-4, one free). Subs: 22. C Daly for Brady (32 mins), 18. J Keane for McConway (44 mins), 26. C Quinn for Hunt (49 mins), 23. M Daly for Reynolds (58 mins). Offaly - Yellow: A McNamee (21 mins), P Kellaghan (27 mins), C McManus (35 mins), P McConway (40 mins), A McNamee (53 mins). Red: A McNamee (53 mins).

Referee: M Duffy (Sligo).

Attendance: 81,754