Wasteful Dublin confound the faithful

GAELIC GAMES: IF IT is wisdom you seek, keep on looking. Yesterday's big blowdown in Croke Park was one of those unknowable games which had little logic to it apart from the obligatory close finish for which Dublin and Meath are celebrated.

Otherwise it is hard, first of all, to explain how the residual attraction of Dublin and Meath could draw 75,250 to Croke Park on an afternoon which felt like late autumn rather than early summer.

Tough also to finger the odd listlessness to which the stadium succumbed for long periods of a game which never felt as close as the scoreboard suggested it to be.

And impossible to rationalise how Dublin could be so clinical in their attacking movements at times and still finish with 17 wides, some of them fisted into oblivion from locations where anything other than a score seemed like an impossibility of trigonometry.

Dublin won, as they have been doing in these games since 2001 and, even though there was almost a gasp of surprise in the stands when the game tipped into injury time with only two points separating the teams, Dublin seldom looked likely to lose.

Dublin played by far the more fluent football and even in those two minutes of additional time when they might have been eerily vulnerable to the sort of sucker punch which has been a royal trademark down the years they denied the audience a cliffhanger.

They played their way out of the danger with possession football, coldly running down the clock. And that was it. Dublin and Meath over and done with.

Typically, Dublin and Meath have produced games where the losing side could present cogent reasons as to why they could have won. Dublin’s profligacy denied Meath that argument.

The first half was an odd affair with both sides dominating in turn. Dublin opened with three points and a fine goal chance stubbed wide by Darren Magee, the first of nine first half wides.

Meath responded with a string of five points against the breeze; a series of scores which chloroformed the Hill for a while as memories of good starts squandered by Dublin teams came flooding back.

But Dublin finished the half with eight unanswered scores during which time Mark Davoren, the rangy full forward from Crokes, introduced himself as a viable full-forward option. Tall and kitted out with pace he scored two points and caused trouble every time he got the ball.

Davoren was stretchered off in the second half with a knee injury. He emerged from the Dublin dressingroom later walking with the aid of a crutch and relaying news that the doctor was optimistic. He faces a scan today. To lose him for the summer would be a body blow to Dublin, a team whose emphasis under the new dispensation has been on speed and movement.

At times when they strung the passes together and moved at pace they were irresistible and, but for a careless final ball they could have cut Meath apart yesterday.

“Meath is a game which can always go either way,” said Dublin manager Pat Gilroy afterwards. “It can be a launching pad or sink you. They are tough. They challenge you hard all over the pitch. I was pleased we didn’t concede any goals or even look like conceding them. These are tough games when you play Meath. You are not let get a ball in those games , three or four arms going in every time you get the ball.”

Gilroy had gambled the house on a new-look side and his bet paid dividends at both ends. None of those players he blooded fared badly and in the 49th minute Gilroy was able to create a ripple around the stadium by inserting Ciarán Whelan and Jason Sherlock into the action.

By then Dublin needed a little stimulus. Having finished the first half scoring freely they landed just one point from play in the second and the ball had ceased to stick on the full-forward line. Sherlock, now in his 15th season of senior service, cured the possession problem if not the accuracy ones.

Some of Dublin’s best moves still ended in ignominy but Meath seldom threatened to take advantage and a point by Joe Sheridan in the 69th minute marked the end of their Leinster campaign.

Earlier the Dublin hurlers had posted a somewhat jittery ten-point victory over Antrim to secure a Leinster semi-final place. With Alan McCrabbe and David O’Callaghan scoring the goals Dublin showed flashes of fluency but little aggression in finally putting away tough opponents.

The draw for semi finals pits them against Wexford, to whom Dublin have lost narrowly several times in recent years. The other semi-final sees Galway face Kilkenny. Both matches take place in a fortnight’s time.