Dublin breeze past Meath to close in on 12th straight Leinster title

Dublin's Brian Fenton with Cillian O'Sullivan of Meath. Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Evan Treacy

Dublin 1-27 Meath 1-14 

Dublin’s relentless rampage through Leinster football just goes on and on with this latest rout of a side they used to count as rivals on Sunday afternoon.

It falls to Kildare now, victors in the earlier game at HQ against Westmeath, to try and deprive them of a 12th straight senior title in the provincial decider later this month.

Let’s not hold our breath.

What this tells us about Dublin in terms of an All-Ireland push is anyone’s guess. Meath were put to bed long before half-time and their miserable day was capped with substitute Jack Flynn and Jordan Morris being shown red cards in the final few minutes.

The sad fact is it could have been much, much worse.

Dublin never took the foot off the accelerator in motoring past Wexford in the last round but they were happy enough to go for tit for tat with Meath after the break, by which stage they were already out of sight.

Rule number one when playing Dublin: find your footing, and quickly. Meath didn’t obey that dictum, their opening ten minutes producing a succession of squandered attacking thrusts and a slow drip of scores at the other end.

Maybe it would have been different had Morris’ low shot bobbled inside the post rather than outside it early on but probably not. Dublin were far too good and Meath didn’t seem to have any particular ploy as to how to stop them, or how to break them down.

The Royals did manage three out of the four points recorded between the eleventh and 17th minutes but all that did was spur Dublin into a spell where they rattled off eight of the next nine. Familiar, monotonously one-sided stuff when it comes to the Dubs in Leinster.

By the break Meath had eight shots sent either wide, short or back off a post. Dublin hit just one awry in the same period and their litany of white flags was accompanied by a goal from a Dean Rock penalty just past the half hour.

The gap at the break was 15 and thoughts of 2020, when Dublin subjected Meath to a record 21-point loss in this fixture, loomed large. Meath, thankfully, managed to ‘win’ the second-half to avoid that particular brand of ignominy this time.

Flynn had already been dismissed by the time Morris claimed Meath’s goal from the penalty spot in injury-time but his own misdemeanour followed shortly afterward, moments before the final whistle.

Scorers for Dublin: D Rock (1-8, 4 frees, 1-0 penalty, 0-1 ‘45’); C Kilkenny (0-5); C Costello (0-3); J McCarthy, T Lahiff, L O’Dell and C O’Callaghan (all 0-2); S Bugler, B Howard (both 0-1); P Small (0-1 mark).

Scorers for Meath: J Morris (1-3, 1-0 penalty, 0-1 free); J O’Connor (0-3, 0-2 frees); B Menton (0-3); D Keogan, T O’Reilly, J Wallace, J Flynn and S McEntee (all 0-1).

Dublin: E Comerford; E Murchan, M Fitzsimons, L Gannon; J Small, L O’Dell, J McCarthy; B Fenton, T Lahiff; S Bugler, B Howard, C Kilkenny; C Costello, C O’Callaghan, D Rock.

Subs: J Cooper for Murchan (50); N Scully for O’Dell and P Small for O’Callaghan (both 56); S Clayton for Fenton (62); B O’Leary for Costello (67).

Meath: H Hogan; R Clarke, C McGill, E Harkin; J McEntee, D Keogan, R Ryan; B Menton, R Jones; M Costello, C O’Sullivan, J O’Connor; J Morris, T O’Reilly, J Wallace.

Subs: C Hickey for J McEntee, S Walsh for O’Reilly and S McEntee for Ryan (all HT); J Flynn for Jones (43); B McMahon for O’Sullivan (59).

Referee: D O’Mahony (Tipperary).