Cahill: Dubs can take final step

PUTTING impressive performances back-to-back hasn’t been one of Dublin’s strong suits in recent years but Barry Cahill believes his side is ready to kick on from their impressive semi-final destruction of Westmeath this Sunday.

The side’s yo-yoing form was never more apparent than last year when a 23-point defeat of Wexford in the Leinster final was followed by a 12-point defeat to eventual champions Tyrone in the All-Ireland quarter-final.

Westmeath were awful a fortnight ago but Dublin were nevertheless ruthless in making the midlanders pay after a stuttering opening win against Meath and the defender is confident ahead of the game against Kildare at Croke Park.

“We have trained very hard after the Westmeath game. There might have been a tendency to drop our standards after having such a convincing win against Westmeath in the semi-final but we’re very experienced.

“I’d like to think we’ve learned from past experiences and can compare this to (last year) after the Wexford game and going into the Tyrone game. Two or three weeks between matches is ideal.”

Meath may have been disappointing but they showed enough going forward in the quarter-final to suggest that Dublin’s defence, and their rookies in particular, may be a source of profit for Kildare.

A thorough examination of that department has been delayed thus far thanks to the side’s dominance elsewhere and the glaring weaknesses which both of their opponents have brought to the table.

“In the Meath game we dominated in the middle third,” said Cahill. “The two lads in midfield (Darren Magee and Ross McConnell) have been playing very well over the last couple of months. It shows because Ciaran Whelan is on the bench.

“From a defender’s point of view it’s great to see them getting up and winning so much ball. The main difference (against Westmeath) was that up front our conversion rate was a lot higher than it was against Meath. It was very encouraging to see.”

It remains to be seen how much use that semi-final cakewalk will be come the weekend. Dublin hit Tomas O Flatharta’s side for eight points inside the opening nine minutes. The rest of the afternoon was academic.

Kildare too enjoyed an easy canter to the finishing line against Laois in Tullamore but Kieran McGeeney’s men at least had the satisfaction of reeling their opponents in after a difficult opening quarter before winning by 15 points.

“Going into a Leinster final against Kildare, ideally you’d like a tougher game to get over,” said Cahill, “to win the game by a couple of points, but you just have to keep dealing with what’s in front of you and do as well as you can.

“I think we’re prepared now for Sunday.” The Leinster final may be a familiar pageant for these Dublin players but their fellow participants are not.

This is Dublin’s fourth different opponent in this decider in four years. Their last meeting with Kildare was at this same stage seven years ago.

That was the summer Ray Cosgrove lit up the championship and his tally of 1-4 on the day was the main reason Dublin won by two points for what was the county’s first provincial title in seven long years.

Cahill is one of only three players to have started that day who will do so again at the weekend. Stephen Cluxton and Alan Brogan are the only other survivors and Cahill thinks he knows what to expect.

“We’re looking forward to it. I suppose over the last few years we’ve got used to playing against Westmeath, Laois and Meath, a few teams like that, so it’s nice to play a different team.

“Playing with Dublin we’re used to having maybe 70 or 80% of the crowd on our side at Croke Park but I think it will be 50-50 come Sunday. The one thing I remember from that Leinster final in 2002 is that they can be very passionate and noisy when they get going.”