Dubs add more of that secret sauce
But still one that was wrapped up with some minutes to spare, as the three-time All-Ireland champions ratchet up the physical exchanges that wears the opposition down, leaves them more fatigued for the final dash and kills the clock.
There was no Con O’Callaghan thunderbolt moment, which set the tone for last August’s All-Ireland semi-final twelve-point hammering, and Tyrone were organised in front of their own fans. But nothing can disguise the fact that Dublin are playing the game at an intensity that few can maintain.
Tyrone manager Mickey Harte went along with that theory afterwards.
“That’s why they’re four times league champions and three times All-Ireland champions in recent years,” he conceded underneath the Healy Park main stand. “You don’t arrive at that position if you don’t have a lot of game know-how, a lot of quality players and players who know how to play with intensity because they’ve been in very many intense games and come out the right side of them.
“You just don’t do that and not learn from it. If we had played like that against anybody else tonight we’d have got two points.”
And all that, with the Dubs still opening up the lungs with nothing more taxing than the occasional Pilates session and weaning themselves off the Margaritas on their holliers.
But Harte wasn’t prepared to give them all the credit either.
“We were architects of our own outcome here,” he added. “We should’ve got more out of that game because we created enough to get more out of that game. If you want to factor that in, yes, I’m not concerned that we lost the game because we weren’t competitive, we were competitive.
“If they’re only back by a couple of weeks, good luck to them. They have a lot of people to call on.”
The Dubs left themselves plenty to do as Tyrone raced into a 1-1 lead after five minutes, Cathal McShane grabbing both scores, the goal coming when Brian Fenton failed to track his run forward and he slotted a through ball past Stephen Cluxton on the turf.
After working their way back into things, Dublin nailed their first goal when Fenton atoned for his earlier sloth, sending in a searching delivery from a free, finding Ciaran Kilkenny on the edge of the Tyrone square and capable of holding off Aidan McCrory with one hand, tap the ball down to himself with the other, and finish the loose ball.
With Lee Brennan, scorer of 0-6 in a Sigerson Cup game for Jordanstown in midweek in blistering form, the Tyrone attack held up well to half-time, when they settled down for their orange segments 1-7 to 1-5 up on the scoreboard.
From the restart, Dublin simply reeled them in.
You mightn’t have heard this yet but Dublin manager Jim Gavin does not feel inclined to be the most fascinating in print. However, he observed: “I think our guys just stayed very present in the game, took it moment by moment. That’s what they have become very good at.”
Some stats. Won’t take long, honest. In the first eleven minutes, Tyrone had compiled five wides. One of them from Declan McClure actually bounced off the top of the post.
In the second half, they came out with plenty of vim and vigour and all that, but every time they looked to put someone in a shooting position, they really didn’t convince.
As much as modern-day Gaelic football is about the rounded footballer, Cathal McCarron advanced here to try one off his left that sailed wide. The otherwise excellent Padraig Hampsey had a go but his kicking style looks like he puts so much care into the shot he is afraid to miss.
Seven efforts went wide. Three dropped short.
Dublin had… em… let me look at that again… None. No shots wide. At all in the second half. Just two in the first half, one of them coming from defender Philly McMahon.
In a nutshell, that is the secret sauce when it comes to the Dubs.
They were a mere three points up after throwing everything at Tyrone and having Niall Scully sent off for a second yellow card when a slick move put Connor McAliskey clear on the Dublin goal. He pulled the trigger and Stephen Cluxton had no problem making the save. McAliskey’s skyward exclamation spoke of a man who clearly had it on his mind that you get one chance to floor the Dubs.
Dublin’s second goal came from an over-indulgence in the Tyrone defence, Colm Basquel nipping in, then unselfishly gifting fellow reinforcement Eoghan O’Gara with a tap-in a yard out.
Still, as Harte surveyed his second league defeat after the two opening rounds, he stated, “I think we battled well in that game. It was a good response to what happened last week in Tuam. I think the first half we were very good and probably could have been further ahead.”
Gavin purrs with satisfaction: “We only met up twice this week to prepare for this game and it will be the same as we go through the games.”
L Brennan (0-6, 3 frees), C McShane (1-1), C McAliskey (0-2), N Sludden and P Harte (0-1 each).
C Kilkenny (1-2), D Rock (0-4, frees), E O’Gara (1-0), C Basquel (0-3, 1 free), K McManamon (0-2), J McCarthy, B Fenton 0-1 each.
: N Morgan; C McLaughlin, C McCarron, HP McGeary; T McCann, P Hampsey, P Harte; M Donnelly, D McClure; R Donnelly, N Sludden, A McCrory; L Brennan, C McShane, C McAliskey.
M McKernan for HP McGeary (22), R McNamee for McCrory (HT), C McCann for McClure (48), R McNabb for McLaughlin (56), F Burns for R Donnelly (56), M Bradley for T McCann (62).
: S Cluxton; P McMahon, M Fitzsimons, D Daly; J Cooper, J McCarthy, J Small; B Fenton, MD Macauley; B Howard, C Kilkenny, N Scully; P Mannion, D Rock, K McManamon.
D Byrne for Small (46), P Andrews for McManamon (51), C Basquel for Mannion (60), E O’Gara for Rock (65), S Carthy for McCarthy (68), E Lowndes for Fenton (69).
Maurice Deegan (Laois)
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