Dublin 3-14 Laois 1-14:Dublin were, judging by some of the players' unsavoury crowing, happy to clock up provincial title number 47 yesterday but it's a long time since that was the measure of a good season for the county.
Taken as a barometer of the champions' fortunes yesterday's Bank of Ireland Leinster football final marked an improvement on last year's bloodless coup but the team know they are only arriving at the stage where their challenge will be properly judged.
Laois were more competitive than they had been in the semi-final 11 months back but that was an easily realised ambition and it was only on the scoreboard that they managed to stay within six points of the winners.
That was disappointing for Liam Kearns, in his first season in charge, because his side established a useful lead in the first quarter and were just a score behind at half-time. But after the break they lacked purpose and, physically dominated, appeared to regard defeat as inevitable.
When Dublin suffered one of the team's now customary scoring fade-outs, a significant gap of 17 minutes or roughly a quarter of the match from the 47th minute to the 64th, their opponents could muster only two points in return to shave an eight-point deficit to six.
A more formidable side than Laois might well have been able to get a run on Dublin and apply the sort of pressure Paul Caffrey's team have found difficulty in resisting but there was never any hint of menace or that the match was going to combust into a competitive climax.
Nonetheless, and encouragingly for Dublin, this wasn't a gun-to-tape procession. The team had to respond to a threatening first quarter and reassert control of proceedings.
Centrefield was solid and productive with Ciarán Whelan in dominant form while Shane Ryan covered acres of ground making himself available for kick-outs and going in hard on the breaks. The attack gave its best display this season, combining intelligently to open up Laois and showing a lethal touch with goal chances.
Incidences of Laois's dilemma bobbed around like flotsam at a shipwreck. Unable to get the defensive combination right, they moved Joe Higgins from Alan Brogan to Conal Keaney before switching him farther outfield while strangely Darren Rooney, whose strength in the air might have impeded, for instance, Dublin's third goal, never got a chance on Keaney while it mattered.
Attacking moves were so extemporised that their half backs kicked as many wides as the forwards and after the opening 10 minutes the selected forwards managed just one point from play. Conversely for Dublin apart from Paul Casey, who struggled to deal with Colm Parkinson, the defence was combative and hard to penetrate. Using their strength to cut off avenues to goal the Dublin backs were also sharp getting in a couple of good blocks and tidying up calmly in the middle of a few helter-skelter attacking movements.
The line will also be happy with the afternoon, as Caffrey and his management made a perceptive and very successful switch after about 15 minutes, freeing Bryan Cullen from centre back and withdrawing Colin Moran to wing back with Barry Cahill, who played very effectively especially as a kick-out target, slipping seamlessly in to pivot the defence.
Cullen's impact on the attack was noticeable, his hard running disconcerting Tom Kelly and helping raise the temperature in the second quarter when Dublin seized the initiative.
Points from wing forwards Parkinson and Peter O'Leary had brought Laois to level terms when they struck for goal in the seventh minute. Brian McCormack's long ball found Beano McDonald - a late call-up in place of the injured Chris Conway - whose shot was blocked but as it dribbled beyond Ross McConnell towards the goal line, the Dublin full back stumbled slightly and the incoming Ross Munnelly provided the finishing touch.
The same player added a sweetly taken point within 90 seconds to give his side a four-point lead, 1-3 to 0-2, which they maintained for the first 20 minutes.
Shaken but not panicked, Dublin responded steadily.
Mark Vaughan's free taking - one that he bent artistically into the wind particularly pleasing - and a couple of scores from Keaney and Bernard Brogan helped keep the champions in touch and they were up to Laois's shoulder when the match changed dramatically.
Trailing by two, 0-7 to 1-6, Dublin's first goal was initiated by Ryan's ball into Keaney and his pass to Cullen, who appeared to over-carry the ball before being stopped and then when on the ground laid off to Vaughan, who steered the ball past Fergal Byron to reclaim the lead.
Vaughan's taunting response to his marker Darren Rooney may have been a response to provocation but the goal surely had said it all. Yet the reaction seemed to set a dispiriting precedent that was followed at later stages by his team-mates with hand gestures to Laois players, the holding up of three fingers and pointing at the scoreboard.
On the credit side Shane Ryan was restrained after receiving two jabs to the head from frustrated Laois captain Pádraig Clancy in the 25th minute.
Within a minute of the goal Jason Sherlock - his intuitively creative use of the ball undermined by a second-half insistence on fruitless pursuit of his own scores - threaded a delightful ball into Keaney, who gathered under extreme pressure and offloaded to Bernard Brogan, whose clinical finish put Dublin 2-7 to 1-6 clear.
In the second half Parkinson and McCormack cut the margin to two but two minutes later a fine catch by Keaney created a chance for Alan Brogan and he was as deadly as his brother in the one-on-one situation.
Brogan added to his goal and Vaughan capitalised on the increasing looseness to take a point from play before Cluxton was called on to perform a cracking save from Parkinson.
At eight points, 3-11 to 1-9, the match was dead. Laois eagerly ran down culs-de-sac while Dublin's focus loosened and their finishing suffered accordingly.
Replacements Tomás Quinn and Ger Brennan landed points for Dublin as the 70 minutes dwindled before late scores from the immaculate place kicking of Michael Tierney and replacement Billy Sheehan gave the scoreboard a spurious respectability from Laois's point of view.
DUBLIN: 1 S Cluxton; 2 D Henry, 3 R McConnell, 4 P Griffin; 7 B Cahill, 6 B Cullen, 5 P Casey; 8 C Whelan (0-2), 9 S Ryan; 10 C Moran, 13 J Sherlock, 12 B Brogan (1-1); 14 C Keaney (0-2, one free), 11 A Brogan (1-1), 15 M Vaughan (1-6, five points frees). Subs: 22 T Quinn (0-1) for Sherlock (63 mins), 26 K Bonner for Vaughan (66 mins), 19 G Brennan (0-1) for Casey (69 mins), 23 D Connolly for B Brogan (70 mins), 20 J Magee for Whelan (71 mins). Yellow Cards: C Moran (11 mins), A Brogan (14 mins), C Bonner (71 mins)
LAOIS: 1 F Byron; 6 D Rooney, 4 J Higgins, 2 C Ryan; 5 P McMahon, 3 T Kelly, 7 B McCormack (0-1); 8 P Clancy (capt.), 9 B Quigley; 10 P O'Leary (0-1), 14 P Lawlor, 12 C Parkinson (0-3); 15 R Munnelly (1-1), 13 M Tierney (0-7, six frees and one 45), 19 B McDonald. Subs: 20 B Sheehan (0-1) for McDonald (50 mins), 23 K Fitzpatrick for Lawlor (65 mins). Yellow cards: C Ryan (62 mins). Attendance: 81,394
Referee: M Hughes (Tyrone).
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