PEOPLE WERE worried the Leinster final would fail to provide us with competitive hurling. A small crowd was expected and a damp squib in general. Instead, we got a game that was beneficial to both sides and a decent crowd showed up despite the rain.

Martin Comerford’s second goal pretty much settled matters on 55 minutes, giving them a crucial seven-point lead, even though Dublin kept coming thereafter. Before that goal they had the champions rattled and but for a few mistakes it could have been closer still.

Dublin applied huge physical pressure all over the pitch with the strategy of crowding midfield and withdrawing Johnny McCaffrey as the extra defender proving a success as it tied up the Kilkenny attack. If they had grabbed a goal at any stage it would have made everyone sit up and take notice. Chances did arrive for David Treacy in the first half and just after an Alan McCrabbe free, in the second half, rebounded to the same player.

Anthony Daly can be very happy in terms of progress. They have carried their league form into the championship and come out of this game wondering what if?

That is no harm for a young team.

In fact, it is a huge positive for them.

On the tactical analysis side of things, they will have learned something too. Withdrawing “Dotsy” O’Callaghan from the full-forward line, while it helped close up the congested middle third, left Treacy and Liam Rushe outnumbered. That meant goal chances were never going to be plentiful. O’Callaghan needs to be closer to goal.

That said, you can’t have everything and certain measures had to be taken to curtail the Kilkenny juggernaut.

This brings us to a powerful Dublin defensive performance. Tomás Brady, Oisín Gough, Stephen Hiney and Joe Boland all produced solid man-on-man marking jobs, in the second half particularly. They held pace which is probably one of the most pleasing things for Anthony Daly.

He can be pleased about a couple of other things as well, but keeping the Kilkenny full-forward line to two points is a rare statistic. Henry Shefflin and Eoin Larkin were subdued, while Eddie Brennan and Richie Power were replaced. All these things can be marked down in the profit column.

Switching perspective, therein lies Kilkenny’s greatness. At least one forward will always deliver for them and it was Martin Comerford here. The man could have had four goals, but his 2-4 return settled the contest.

Questions about Kilkenny’s form can be examined, but this was an awkward game for them. Everyone expected them to win, they expected to win, and without reaching the ruthless standards of the Galway match they got the job done.

Maybe it was the novelty of this fixture that put them off their stride a little or maybe it was the hustling physicality of Dublin at every turn. They did a decent impression of Kilkenny at times.

Tommy Walsh and John Tennyson were winning important ball, but coming under massive pressure. This can be solved by the return of Brian Hogan from a collarbone break. It’s evident they miss him at the heart of defence where Tennyson and John Dalton struggled.

The outstanding Alan McCrabbe and Treacy aside, a few more scoring forwards were needed to make Kilkenny pay a high price. Liam Ryan got through a mountain of physical work, but he lacks the natural scoring ability that Comerford exuded up the other end. I was surprised to see him replaced.

Dublin will improve because of this game. There is also no need to be overly critical of Kilkenny as it has been proven before that Anthony Daly teams, at the very least, play to their potential. They almost reached a stage where they had Kilkenny worried, but the second goal ended that. The next task for Daly is to maintain the standards set yesterday for the quarter-final.

An All-Ireland semi-final would be a massive return in what is already a landmark year for Dublin hurling.

Brian Cody can also be pleased as after the huge lift gained from the Galway performance he will be content to have areas to work on over the next five weeks of training down in Nowlan Park. It’s rare that Kilkenny get bullied like they did in patches here so they will come back angry for the All-Ireland semi-final.

The other significant result was the big win by Cork in Tullamore. Beating Offaly, regardless of their injury problems, was always going to be difficult and Aisake Ó hAilpín’s emergence as a goalscorer brings a vital new element to their make-up.