Ruthless Dublin get the job done

A sloppy finish shouldn’t take away from a second successive Leinster title for a Dublin side that barely shifted higher than third gear.

Ten points up with 16 minutes to play, they made life a little difficult for themselves in the end and allowed Meath stage a late rally before restoring order. Dare it be said, their lack of focus in the last 10 minutes when they were outscored 1-3 to 0-1 bordered on disinterest.

Their familiarity with the Tommy Delaney Cup is such that he’s almost a permanent resident in the capital now and this being their seventh provincial title in eight years their minds may have wandered to bigger days ahead.

In front of an impressive 69,657 Croke Park crowd and despite losing the talismanic Alan Brogan to injury in the 29th minute, it turned out they had done enough to win this game in the opening hour.

If their semi-final against Wexford demonstrated their refusal to panic in a trying scenario, yesterday they displayed another hallmark of champions — ruthlessness.

Ahead by two points at the end of normal time in the first-half, their advantage was augmented to eight in less than 60 seconds of the additional injury period.

For the first goal, Michael Darragh Macauley found Eoghan O’Gara who seemed to have held onto the ball for a mite too long before delivering a deft short kick into Bernard Brogan whose shot beat David Gallagher.

Meath had lost possession at the outset of that score and they did again almost immediately afterwards when Denis Bastick was giving the freedom to run through and spank a strike past a reeling Meath goalkeeper.

Psychologically, a goal before half-time is huge but two were mammoth and Meath went in 2-7 to 0-5 down and forced to play a game of catch-up.

A Brian Farrell point just seconds after the restart boded well but Bernard Brogan followed up with a well-worked individual score.

Stephen Cluxton then had to be alert to deny Farrell a goal but while Joe Sheridan converted the resulting 45 Dublin kicked the next three points.

After Macauley had stung the post from a cute Bryan Cullen handpass, Bernard Brogan notched a free.

Three minutes later, an Eoghan O’Gara kick was waved wide by an umpire only for linesman Maurice Deegan to alert referee Marty Duffy to the folly of the call.

Deegan appeared to have seen a replay of the kick on one of Croke Park’s big screens and informed Duffy of it. While Duffy was entitled to be advised by his linesman, it is not clear whether Deegan was allowed to alert him based on video evidence.

The score was legit, though, and put Dublin nine ahead with James McCarthy then adding another seconds later.

It was at this stage that Dublin appeared to switch off. While O’Gara kicked his second in the 59th minute a Farrell free and a Donnacha Tobin point preceded it.

Dublin didn’t score again until the 69th minute — the third 10 minute period in which they didn’t score during the game — as Meath took advantage of a Dublin team happy to sit back.

Farrell bagged a free either side of a Graham Reilly score to reduce his side’s arrears to six before substitute Jamie Queeney found the net after taking a Mark Collins pass.

Bernard Brogan’s seventh point of the day, his third from play, was almost instantaneous but back Reilly came with his third.

Heading into injury-time, a ponderous Dublin were made to protect their three-point lead and with some excellent sniping from Michael Fitzsimons and Philly McMahon they succeeded.

In the end, a strongly-struck free was caught easily by Cluxton and he had his eighth provincial medal.

Dublin did what they had to do but will welcome Diarmuid Connolly, suspended for this game, back with open arms the next day.

Kevin McManamon, so impressive against Louth and Wexford, was marshalled well by Donal Keoghan, although the loss of the eldest Brogan brother deprived them of a playmaker.

Dublin were 0-5 to 0-1 ahead after 16 minutes and but for some unnecessary fouls would have enjoyed a handsome lead before they hit Meath for those two goals.

At least Pat Gilroy will take something from the fact his midfield was so impressive and Macauley alternated admirably between that area and the full-forward line.

But as the Dublin manager said afterwards, it’s all about next month: “The time to be outstanding is from August onwards and that’s the reality of it.”

At this stage, Leinster’s old hat to Dublin — yesterday was just about winning.

Scorers for Dublin: B Brogan 1-7 (4fs), D Bastick 1-0, A Brogan, E O’Gara 0-2 each, K McManamon, J McCarthy 0-1 each.

Scorers for Meath: B Farrell 0-7 (6fs), J Queeney 1-0, G Reilly 0-3, S Bray, J Sheridan (45), D Tobin 0-1 each.

Subs for Dublin: E O’Gara for A Brogan (inj 29), P Andrews for McManamon (49), B Cahill for Fennell (57), C Dias for Flynn (60), P Brogan for Cullen (65).

Subs for Meath: E Harrington for K Reilly (inj 25), C Ward for Forde (28), P Byrne for Carroll (ht), J Queeney for Meade (48), M Collins for Bray (58).

Referee: Marty Duffy (Sligo).