All-Ireland SFC semi-final: Donegal 3-26 Meath 0-15
It was a weekend of slightly disappointing irony at Croke Park. The most exciting football championship in years served for its penultimate course two underwhelming All-Ireland semi-finals. Big crowds were in attendance. Sunday saw a capacity crowd turn up for the clash of Ulster champions Donegal and the season’s mold breakers, Meath.
If only it could have been left suspended in time with everyone in anticipation of perhaps another surprise scalp on the Leinster finalists’ belt or at least a pulsating contest. Instead, the winners ran up a margin unseen at this stage of the championship for 32 years since Cork beat Mayo.
The reality that intruded on romance was however of such awesome destructiveness that it at least sets up a titanic encounter for this year’s All-Ireland final between Donegal and Kerry.
There might have been more apprehension at half-time about the prospects for Sunday’s second half had everyone grasped the difficulty of scoring into the Hill end. A tricky, swirling breeze narrowed the window of scoring considerably and there was maybe something ominous about how Donegal built a five-point interval lead, 0-13 to 0-8 in the face of the elements.
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First, though, it should be acknowledged that Meath set about the task with energy and determination. Within 15 seconds, Seán Coffey, raiding from the throw-in, burst through but blasted his shot wide off the post.
It set an unfortunate trend for the team, who finished the half with nine wides and two dropped short, as they attempted to harness the elements and put a sizable gap on the scoreboard, as they had, when ambushing Dublin in April. There were signs that they were perhaps forcing it a bit, as seven efforts at two-pointers either went wide or dropped short.
This was in addition to the two, scored by Eoghan Frayne and Ruairí Kinsella.
Meath were also combative in defence, turning over Donegal at one point in successive attacks and successful in making Shaun Patton pay for a sequence of wayward restarts.
The dynamic of the plucky underdogs wore off as the first half progressed. Meath needed more product on the scoreboard at the break. The downside was also obvious. Donegal were hugely efficient in the first quarter. Michael Murphy steered a two-point free over from a couple of metres beyond the arc – it was the team’s only enhanced score of the afternoon.
If Jim McGuinness’s team became a bit trigger happy before half-time, they were also discovering where the bodies were buried in the opposition defence. Ominously, in light of what was to come, there were three goal-scoring opportunities that came to nothing.
Donal Keogan cleared Conor O’Donnell’s shot off the line in the 31st minute, followed by Billy Hogan saving a point-blank shot from Hugh McFadden and finally, Murphy doing everything right by taking a step, in front of goal and drilling it high - but it cleared the bar for a point.
Meath’s misfortune with injuries continued when in the 21st minute centrefielder Bryan Menton had to go off after a collision with Michael Langan, who then proceeded to dominate the sector, as Donegal won about half a dozen consecutive kickouts.
For the third match running, Donegal unleashed hell in the second half. Their ability to counter-attack from turnover ball at serious pace is astonishing in its relentlessness. Make allowances for a game but outgunned opposition and yet the sustained tempo was furious.
Murphy was replaced on 45 minutes, having done his job, calming everything down in the early stages and – literally, at times – directing play.
There were so many stand-out displays. Finbarr Roarty was the tv MOTM, one of his defensive interventions leading to the second goal and his constant movement, either shadowing attackers or breaking out like a forest fire devastatingly effective.
Brendan McCole did another fine man-marking job, this time on Meath’s MOTM against Galway, Jordan Morris, who was comprehensively frustrated as the slick counter-attacks that had undone the Connacht champions never achieved lift-off.
Oisín Gallen, after a slow start, kicked 1-2 – the goal, exceptionally well taken after he had stepped out to make space for his shot after a Caolan McColgan assist.
Ryan McHugh was another withdrawn early and also made sharp interceptions and clever runs from the back. He played a pivotal role in the second goal, taking the pass from Shane O’Donnell and popping the ball into the fast raiding Ciarán Moore who placed his shot in the net.
Langan, having taken hold at centrefield played a threatening, advanced role to finish with 0-4.
The best of the three goals came from a move as goldenly pieced together as a Fabergé egg. Patrick McBrearty, who again made a big impact off the bench with 0-3 from play, attacked and played in Jason McGee, who checked and kicked back across the goal for Conor O’Donnell who cut back and finished.
Meath by now were like dogs chasing cars, exhausted and bewildered. They tried to make the scoreboard more respectable, but the Northern End was not hospitable and chances went wide.
Seán Rafferty, who had been defiant all day, came up from the back and kicked their first in 11 minutes but it was little more than a reminder they were still there.
There was a sense that if two disappointing semi-finals is the price we pay for an epic final, so be it. It will be the second time Kerry have played Donegal in an All-Ireland final, 11 years on from the first. Fourteen/ more sleeps.
Donegal: S Patton (0-0-1, 45); F Roarty, C McColgan, B McCole; R McHugh (0-0-1), EB Gallagher, P Mogan (0-0-1); H McFadden, M Langan (0-0-4); C Moore (1-0-1), C Thompson (0-0-2), S O’Donnell (0-0-1); C O’Donnell (1-0-3), M Murphy (6: 0-1f-4, 1f), O Gallen (1-0-2). Subs: P McBrearty (0-0-3) for Murphy (45 mins), J McGee for McFadden (50 mins), D Ó Baoill (0-0-1) for McHugh (55 mins), O McFadden-Ferry for Mogan (59 mins).
Meath: B Hogan; S Rafferty (0-0-1), S Lavin, R Ryan; D Keogan, S Coffey, C Caulfield; B Menton, A O’Neill; M Costello (0-0-1f), R Kinsella (3: 0-1-1), C Duke (0-0-1); J Morris (0-0-1), K Curtis (0-0-3), E Frayne (5: 0-1-3). Subs: C Gray for Menton (21 mins), E Harkin for O’Neill (46 mins), J McEntee for Lavin (51 mins), B O’Halloran for Curtis (57 mins), S Walsh for Kinsella (62 mins).
Referee: P Faloon (Down).
