Kildare will rue conservative tactics
In truth, it looked a harsh free from my seat in the Hogan Stand, although I was a long way from it. Certainly, as a forward you would expect to be beheaded to earn such a late free in such an important match.
However, Kildare would be wrong to go down that route. They missed four frees off the ground from around the 45, kicks that Stephen Cluxton was able to convert for Dublin.
I felt Kildare didn’t really go for the game like they normally do. They brought Eamon O’Callaghan to wing-back to allow Morgan O’Flaherty sit in front of the full-back line in the first-half. Eamon was terrific in scoring four points against Meath the previous game. Johnnie Doyle didn’t get forward from midfield at all in the first half — he picked off three points from play against Meath.
When Eoghan O’Gara was sent off, amazingly Doyle was left as the free man by Dublin but he played in the centre-back position and spent a lot of time back helping his full-back line. He ended the day with just one point from a free and had no shot at goals from open play. It is hard to know did Johnnie decide to play conservatively himself or was he playing to Kieran McGeeney’s instructions.
In fairness to the coach, he moved Eamon O’Callaghan to centre-forward after half time and he finished the game with 1-2. Doyle moved to wing-forward for the last 10 minutes and interestingly gave the second last pass in the move for O’Callaghan’s goal. James Kavanagh was also subdued and he too moved further out the field as the game wore on, which left Kildare with their three best attackers too far from goal while less creative players like Hugh Lynch, Rob Kelly, Tomás O’Connor and Conor Brophy were getting ball but were often outnumbered by retreating Dubs.
Kildare were also a bit one dimensional with the long ball and finished a match with 17 chances that either went wide or dropped into the keeper’s hands — a lot of these efforts were from distance. With Kildare going man-to-man for the kick-outs the sweeper system wasn’t set up when Gary White was dispossessed by Paul Flynn and he had a straight run through the Kildare defence for the vital Dublin goal. Indeed, had Andrew McLoughlin not miraculously cleared Alan Brogan’s shot off the line just after half time the game would have been over then.
Ultimately, Dublin deserved their win. They played for half an hour with 14 men and led for most of the game.
The crucial phase of the match was the second quarter, with Dublin out-scoring Kildare by 1-5 to a single point. Dublin were patient and careful with the ball and did well to get 1-7 against the massed defence. It left Dublin with a five-point cushion, which was a big help when O’Gara got sent off just after half time.
In the Brogan brothers, Dublin had two forwards who had far more class than the Kildare attack had. Alan Brogan’s form is a big plus, whether at centre-forward or the inside line. Cluxton was excellent in fielding long Kildare deliveries and he kicked his frees. Rory O’Carroll also dealt well under the high ball. I felt Pat Gilroy got it wrong by breaking up the Brogan/Connolly/Brogan full-forward line to accommodate O’Gara.
I felt it marginalised Connolly in the corner and he doesn’t need to be marginalised at this important stage in his career. What Gilroy did get right was having three fresh midfielders on the pitch in Eamon Fennell, Ross McConnell and Barry Cahill in the last five minutes and this secured the vital last kick-out after the Kildare equaliser, leading to the winning free. Had Kildare won that last kick-out and won by a point then the focus would be on another Dublin collapse. Small things make a big difference.
Dublin coped well when down to 14 men. With their system they are used to dropping men back and allowing the Brogans forage on their own up front, so it didn’t unduly upset them.
It was a good win to chisel out but Kildare may rue their approach and regret that they did not really go and attack Dublin with their best weapons.
Meanwhile, Ciaran Lyng, Ben Brosnan and Redmond Barry had taken the scoring plaudits in Wexford’s previous two impressive wins but all three were off-cue in the first half of the other semi-final at headquarters yesterday.
Wexford can thank Shane Roche for getting them out of a hole with his two goals and three points in the first half. Graham Molloy at full-back and the roaming full-forward/midfielder Eric Bradley were also impressive. Probably no harm for Wexford to hit a speed bump ahead of the Leinster final where they will need to get back to their previous form if they are to trouble Dublin.
Carlow gave a good account of themselves for 30 minutes and with a rare Leinster championship win and a game in Croker it has been a good year for them.
