Dublin tear Longford to shreds
The only coach manager Jack Sheedy brought to Croke Park yesterday was the 52-seater that remained immobile under the Hogan Stand for the afternoon.
It was an admirable approach that recalled times long gone by, but it only made Dublin’s job easier.
Rory O’Carroll, the Dublin full-back who sat this one out with injury, said earlier this month that he fully expected one or two teams to flood their defences against them this summer. Who will dare do anything but, after watching this?
Down by 1-4 to no score inside five minutes, Longford went on to concede three more goals to Paul Flynn, Dean Rock and Bernard Brogan.
Of the 29 scores Dublin claimed, 26 of them came from open play. They came, they saw and they did as they pleased.
“Jack would be more of a traditionalist, like myself,” said Dublin boss Jim Gavin. “I have looked at his teams and I have followed them. He plays a very traditional game, like myself, so I was not surprised.”
Not so much a Leinster football quarter-final then as a slaughter. Eleven different players attached their name to Dublin’s scoresheet and just as notable given their profligacy in recent times was the fact that they only blotted their copybook with half-a-dozen wides.
This was clinical, but it was a surgical operation carried out in antiseptic conditions, with points kicked from players in acres of space and fluid passing moves put together without hardly a finger or glove from a defender to halt their progress.
The result was carnage, even by Dublin’s recent, ridiculous standards in the eastern province.
For over a decade now, they have lain waste to the region and this 27-point win equals the worst beating they had previously handed out since they seized control in 2005.
It was Westmeath who suffered that record loss at the semi-final stage back in 2009 while Wexford fell 23 points short of them in the decider a year earlier and even Kildare and Meath have been left dazed on the back of 16-point losses in the last two seasons.
Where will this all end?
The 4-26 they scored yesterday, incidentally, was the biggest scoring tally they have managed in this 11-year stint — one point more than the pain they inflicted on Westmeath six years ago — and the graphs are all pointing towards darker days for the rest.
Since Meath shocked them with five goals in 2010, Dublin’s scoring averages in Leinster have increased every summer from 17.3 points four years ago to 29 a year ago. This 37-point haul leaves them well-positioned to climb even further in that regard.
Jim Gavin was adamant that such outings are vital markers in the route back to September glory, but Sheedy was more in tune with what everyone — including his Dublin counterpart — knows to be the truth, and that is that these cakewalks are serving no-one’s interests.
The most revealing moments came afterwards when Gavin revealed that Rory O’Carroll and Cian O’Sullivan may yet step up their returns from injury next week by featuring for their clubs in the county championship while James McCarthy is there or thereabouts.
As for this game? Slim pickings.
The favourites awarded championship debuts to full-back David Byrne, number six John Small and midfielder Brian Fenton and any information gleaned from their day’s work will need to be filtered through a harsher light than Longford’s challenge.
If there was a concern it was that Byrne — in for the injured Rory O’Carroll — struggled on Brian Kavanagh, whose talent and experience had the Naomh Olaf defender in some trouble, especially earlier on in proceedings.
Small was hardly troubled in the main, even if Longford midfielder Michael Quinn did power his way through Dublin’s middle a few times in the first half, although Fenton and Denis Bastick did make life difficult for their opponents in the engine room from the off.
Dublin led 2-14 to 0-8 at the break — the sort of scoreline more common at the end of 70 minutes rather than 35, and yet the pain was extended f or Longford after the interval thanks to the extended treatment for Ross Nerney who was taken to the Mater Hospital after a blow to his cheekbone.
That added seven more, excruciating minutes on to the back end of the afternoon for those dwindling few among the attendance of 33,544 who were still knocking about. The last cheer, for a Kavanagh free, was of the ironic variety.
A sour last note, but maybe a fitting one.
B Brogan (1-6); D Rock (1-6, 0-2 frees and 0-2 ‘45’); P Flynn (1-3); C Kilkenny (0-3); D Connolly (1-0); K McManamon (0-2); B Fenton, P McMahon, T Brady, P Andrews and E Lowndes (all 0-1).
B Kavanagh (0-5, 4 frees); R Connor (0-3); L Connerton (0-1); P Collum (0-1 ‘45’).
S Cluxton; P McMahon, D Byrne, J Cooper; D Daly, J Small, J McCaffrey; D Bastick, B Fenton; P Flynn, C Kilkenny, D Connolly; D Rock, K McManamon, B Brogan.
M Fitzsimons for McMahon and T Brady for Connolly (both half-time); MD Macauley for Bastick (46); P Andrews for Flynn (52); E Lowndes for Cooper (56); A Brogan for B Brogan (61).
P Collum; D Brady, C Farrell, B Gilleran; D Masterson, B O’Farrell, CP Smyth; M Quinn, K Diffley; P Foy, R McNerney, R McEntire; B McKeown, B Kavanagh, R Connor.
L Connerton for McKeon (17); A Rowan for Smyth (49); P Gill for Connor (52); F Battrim for Masterson (57); E Williams for McNerney (70).
C Lane (Cork).
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
