Dominant Dublin still rule over Meath
Eamon Heery and Keith Barr nailed O’Rourke from either side and down dropped Meath’s hero.
“I thought he was dead,” recalled Cullen, Dublin’s manager in ’91. “He was down and looked for all the world like he was actually dead. The next thing, mother of Jaysus, he gets up and plays on! How he did it I’ll never know.”
Meath, of course, won that incredible fourth game though O’Rourke, concussed, had no memory of it.
A quarter of a century on, Meath were fired to the turf again by Dublin at Croke Park yesterday evening but, unlike O’Rourke, they were unable to haul themselves back up to raise their dukes again.
In fact, they were pinned down throughout an entire second half that Dublin dominated to win with 10 points to spare and quell any suggestion that an anniversary win for Meath was on the cards.
Martin McHugh reckons the Celtic Tiger made Meath soft though this is one tough Dublin team, capable of mixing silk with steel as they displayed yet again in front of 42,259.
How this bunch of Dubs would have fared in ’91 is one for the bar stool brigade to ponder. They’re certainly a special bunch and outscored Meath by seven points in that second half to win pulling up.
There was just three points in it at half-time and though Dublin weren’t exactly troubled, they were being being asked some tricky questions all the same.
Graham Reilly, who suggested after Meath’s quarter-final win over Louth that Dublin always fear their neighbouring county, kicked two early points while Mickey Newman was reliable from placed balls.
It was a decent showing from a young Meath side all too aware that 16 points separated the teams when they met in the 2014 Leinster final.
The next step for them was to push on in the second-half but they were painfully unable to do so, looking on forlornly for long stretches as Dublin toyed with them and played a frustrating game of keep ball.
Dean Rock’s 10-point haul for Dublin was the eye catching statistic though nine of his scores came from frees. Diarmuid Connolly was the real star with four points, two in either half, to help secure a Leinster final clash with Westmeath on July 17.
It’ll be a repeat of the 2015 decider which Dublin won thanks to a similarly strong second-half display and if their provincial hegemony doesn’t continue beyond next month, that will be one for the record books indeed.
In truth, the sense of a Dublin team finding its tempo and gearing up for the business end of the season is strong with fifth gear rarely required. The only downside, and a tick in the corresponding credit column for Meath, was that Jim Gavin’s men didn’t score a goal. Other than that, it was business as usual and an 11th Leinster final in 12 seasons beckons.
“I thought we pushed on in the second half, kept our structure, kept our composure, kept our patience and eventually pushed it out to a 10-point win so, overall, getting to a provincial final was the main objective and we’ve got there now,” said Gavin.
“Our execution and some of our shots on the technical side of things needs a bit work. But from a coaching perspective, through that optic, creating those scoring chances was pleasing. Meath set up as we thought they would, in the main, with 13 men behind the ball but I thought we showed good patience to probe and to find gaps in that defence.
“We had lots of opportunities to score in the first-half, didn’t always take them, and that gives us some takeaways for the next day.”
It’s debatable if Gavin truly learned much from this encounter. Unlike Meath, it was a tried and trusted 21 players that he used and they delivered as they generally do.
Meath were more defensive than normal, partly because they’ve coughed up huge leads three times in the last 12 months, most notably to Westmeath in last year’s Championship, but also simply because it was Dublin they were facing.
Dublin can expect more of the same against Westmeath next month. They’re an experienced team now though and their patience and ability to retain possession for long spells allows them to pick their way through 12 and 13 defenders at their ease.
Connolly was a cut above his peers again with some classy scores and as if to underline Dublin’s general attacking ability, they brought on the likes of Con O’Callaghan, Paddy Andrews and Paul Mannion to pile more pressure on Meath’s leaky defence.
Meath head to the qualifiers now and a testing tie in Derry awaits in under a fortnight. It remains to be seen how much losing to Dublin took out of them.
The positives for them were their strong start - they were just 0-11 to 0-8 down at half-time - and the amount of young players who experienced this cauldron for the first time. But the end result was a familiar one for them, defeat, and 1991 is seeming like an awful long time ago with each passing year.
D. Rock (0-10, 9 frees); D. Connolly (0-4); B. Brogan (0-3); P. Flynn (0-2); B. Fenton, P. Mannion (0-1 each).
M. Newman (0-4, 3 frees); G. Reilly (0-3); C. O’Sullivan (0-2, 1 free); E. Wallace, R. Jones (0-1 each).
S. Cluxton (c); David Byrne, J. Cooper, P. McMahon; J. Small, C. O’Sullivan, J. McCarthy; B. Fenton, D. Bastick; P. Flynn, C. Kilkenny, D. Connolly; K. McManamon, D. Rock, B. Brogan.
MD. Macauley for Bastick (h/t); P. Mannion for Brogan (53); P. Andrews for MacManamon (58); E. Lowndes for Small (60); M. Fitzsimons for O’Sullivan (63); C. O’Callaghan for Flynn (67).
P. O’Rourke; D. Keogan (c), M. Burke, D. Smyth; A. Douglas, D. Tobin, C. O’Brien; H. Rooney, A. Tormey; E. Wallace, G. Reilly, P. Harnan; M. Newman, C. O’Sullivan, D. McDonagh.
R. Jones for Tormey (53); S. Lavin for Wallace (55); S. Tobin for McDonagh (60); J. Wallace for Reilly (63); C. Finn for Douglas (67); B. McMahon for O’Sullivan (68). J. Wallace (BC 76).
R. Hickey (Clare).
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