Capital conquest as once-great rivalry fails to ignite

SOONER or later someone is going to assemble a DVD of all the great Dublin-Meath games and, when they do, this particular reel will be one of the first to fall to the editing room floor.

Shame really because it boasted all the right ingredients. The magnificent Croke Park cathedral was almost full, the weather perked up and two warring tribes were topping the bill.

Eight yellow cards were handed out, a few fists even flew through the air, but the intensity and vibrancy that we have come to expect from any meeting between these two neighbours just wasn’t there.

Maybe the back door has sucked some of the venom from the rivalry. The shift in demographics that has left thousands of Dubs domiciled behind enemy lines in towns like Navan and Dunshaughlin could be another diluting factor.

The main reason though was the quality, or lack of it. The suspicion prior to throw-in was that this would be a meeting between two prize-fighters that had seen better days. So it proved. Dublin weren’t great. Meath were worse.

That there was only two points between the sides at the finish will be a source of puzzlement and concern to Pat Gilroy who was giving his new-look Dublin side its first airing on the championship stage.

Gilroy chose just eight of the side that had succumbed to Tyrone last August. He handed starting championship debuts to three defenders and Mark Davoren up front and backboned the team with an entirely new midfield.

And yet some worrying old cracks reappeared.

Consistency continues to elude them, just as it did under Paul Caffrey. They are football’s schizophrenics, juggling soaring heights and subterranean troughs, and they went long spells here without adding to the scoreboard.

Better teams than Meath would have made them pay. If not for their highs and lows then for their 17 wides. Bernard Brogan was the chief culprit but there were many more sets of fingerprints around the scenes of the crimes.

Things began well enough for Dublin. Two Conal Keaney frees and a Paddy Andrews point laid the foundations against a Meath team that was failing dismally to service their forwards.

Then, from nowhere, Meath clicked. Briefly. A quintet of unanswered points could have unsettled this new-look Dublin team but, instead, they seemed to take umbrage and went on a scoring spree of their own.

Five points to three down, they ended the half 0-11 0-5 to the good thanks to an astonishing run of dominance at midfield where they claimed 14 consecutive kickouts. All but one of them came from Meath’s Paddy O’Rourke.

Read that stat again. Fourteen in-a-row.

Meath were shockingly naïve and one-dimensional. O’Rourke’s kicks flew high and up the middle, one after another. Every one disappeared into the Dublin meat grinder only to be spat again out for a waiting forward who invariably scored.

It could have been even worse. Keaney helped the ball, and O’Rourke, over the line after a speculative attempt by Alan Hubbard six minutes before the break but the ‘goal’ was ruled out for square ball.

With the brisk wind at their breaks on the restart, Meath went about closing the gap impressively. Only two points separated the sides after 44 minutes before Alan Brogan and Keaney replied in quick succession.

That was the extent of Dublin’s scoring for the day, one 60th minute free from Keaney aside, but Meath’s rate of conversion began to dwindle almost as rapidly.

It was no surprise as their forward line always looked to be their weakest link. Shane McArney and Caoimhin King were converted defenders while Stephen Bray, their chief attacking threat most days, was quiet all afternoon and eventually retired injured 13 minutes from time.

Mark Davoren had departed two minutes earlier with a twisted knee and the game could ill afford the loss of such gifted attackers. Only three points were registered in the last 20 minutes, but eleven wides.

Dublin at least had some heavy hitters to call on as the clock wound down. Ciaran Whelan rumbled on to add to the still dominant midfield, Jason Sherlock added a touch of the unpredictable to the attack.

Meath’s second wave was less stellar. Joe Sheridan did contribute their 12th and last point on the brink of full-time but Meath were beaten, by their own shortcomings as much as by Dublin.

The Dubs, at least, would appear to have ample room for improvement and a chronically weak Leinster Championship in which to do it. Meath’s road is a lonelier, and depressingly familiar, one.

The qualifiers await and it is hard to see them emerge at the other end into the welcoming light of an All-Ireland quarter-final. A once-great county is not what it once was. And, on this evidence, neither is a once-great rivalry.

Scorers for Dublin: C Keaney 0-5f, A Brogan 0-3, M Davoren 0-2, B Brogan 0-2 (1f), G Brennan 0-1, P Andrews 0-1.

Scorers for Meath: C Ward 0-4 (1f, 1 ‘45’), B Farrell 0-2, S McArney 0-2, M Ward 0-1, S Bray 0-1, C King 0-1, J Sheridan 0-1.

DUBLIN: S Cluxton; D Henry, D Bastick, A Hubbard; B Cahill, G Brennan, P Griffin; R McConnell, D Magee; P Flynn, P Andrews, B Brogan; C Keaney, M Davoren, A Brogan.

Subs: C Whelan for McConnell 50, J Sherlock for B Brogan 50, D Connolly for Flynn 53, P Burke for Davoren 55, D Connolly for Andrews 60, B Kelly for Flynn 70.

MEATH: P O’Rourke; E Harrington, K Reilly, A Moyles; S Kenny, N McKeigue, C McGuinness; M Ward, N Crawford; B Meade, S Bray, S McArney; C King, C Ward, B Farrell.

Subs: C O’Connor for M Ward 42, B Sheridan for McArney 47, B Regan for McKeigue 51, P Byrne for Bray 57, J Sheridan for Meade 67.

Referee: M Duffy (Sligo).