LEINSTER UNDER-21 HC FINAL: Dublin 1-18 Wexford 0-11:DUBLIN HURLING is now in possession of the Leinster Under-21 and Minor titles. They are also National League champions.
All three teams have already switched their attention to winning an All-Ireland title in 2011, with the under-21s, after last night’s ruthless dismantling of Wexford, looking the best option to achieve the one accolade that is required before this can be confirmed as a proper revolution.
Antrim are all that stands in the way of them playing in the second week of September.
“We can only focus on our next game,” said Dublin manager John McEvoy. “We have got great assistance from Anthony (Daly) and a lot of these guys are part of or want to be part of the senior panel, so we continue on. But yes, there is a hunger for that.”
There was a moment deep in first-half injury time that neatly sums up this provincial decider.
A Dublin player racing through a gaggle of yellow bellies was lanced by a shoulder. He went down. Referee Seán Cleere, who had got to grips with the tone of this contest, waved for him to arise. He did, and found team-mate Dean Curran over on the left wing, where he had just clipped a classy sideline cut.
Curran cocked his hurley to fire over a point that would leave Dublin two ahead at the interval but it never made it into the sky. Harry Kehoe had tracked the run and got in a half block.
This is how it went until Dublin broke their hosts’ spirit with a goal by Eamon Dillon on 37 minutes.
We had 17 points in the opening half. This includes a nine-minute lull when the sides got all muscular around the middle third. This suited Dublin. Not that the likes of Liam Rushe were getting it all their own way.
From the off Rushe shifted from centre forward to centre back, where he performed admirably for the seniors against Galway earlier this summer.
John Leacy was obviously given instructions to get in on this player-cam lark. The Wexford centre back became a centre forward. They were wrestling with each other throughout, but both still managed to find time to hurl. And hurl well.
Others stood out, despite the textbook hooking and blocking.
Emmet Kent racked up 0-4, three placed balls, before going off with a blood wound (he was immediately sent to hospital for treatment).
Wexford seemed certain to miss him, but Paul Morris and Liam Óg McGovern got them ahead before Curran’s sideline was followed up by a great strike from Dillon and Kevin McLoughlin.
The latter had his fifth point early in the second half as Dublin threatened to pull away.
But Morris, taking the frees in Kent’s absence, kept Wexford in touch.
That is until Dillon made an oddity of the decision not to start him. A high ball dropped, he gathered, and bounced a shot past Wexford goalkeeper and captain Mark Fanning.
McLoughlin followed up with another free, and then Dillon brought his night’s total to 1-2.
When another Dublin sub, Seán McGrath, pointed to make it 1-14 to 0-11, Wexford fell away.
Such was the pace of this contest, they weren’t capable of reeling in a six-point deficit, especially when every ball sent into the Dublin square was gathered, more often than not, by the immense Darren Kelly.
Mark Schutte seemed to have delivered the hammer blow for Dublin but his shot ricocheted off the post. Niall McMorrow eventually put it over the bar.
A thrilling game finally slowed and Dublin could canter to their fifth provincial title at Under-21. More importantly, it was their third since 2007.
Rushe noted from the podium that they are the first Dublin team to put back-to-back titles together.
Wexford are still a competitive force, but the victors now switch focus to the holiest of grails.
DUBLIN: G McManus; B O'Carroll, D Kelly, J Doughan; D Curran (0-1, sideline), LRushe, M Quilty; C Gough (0-1), D Sutcliffe (0-1); M Schutte, D Plunkett, R Mahon; K O'Loughlin (0-8, 0-6 frees), T Connolly, N McMorrow (0-3). Subs: E Dillon (1-2) for M Quilty (27 mins), S McGrath (0-2) for R Mahon (half-time), C Brennan for M Schutte (49 mins), F Clabby for T Connolly (59 mins).
WEXFORD:M Fanning; W Devereux, P Donnelly, E Moore; M O'Regan, M O'Hanlon, S Murphy; E Kent (0-4, 0-2 frees, 0-1 65), K Kehoe (0-1); S Tomkins, J Leacy, L Óg McGovern (0-1); P Morris (0-4, 0-2 frees), J Breen, P Doran (0-1). Subs: D O'Keeffe for E Kent (21 mins), J Gahan for J Leacy (21 mins), J Reck for D O'Keeffe (55 mins), I Byrne for S Tomkins (56 mins).
Referee:S Cleere (Kilkenny).
