By numbers - Dublin's Leinster football championship domination 

The returning Stephen Cluxton has 16 Leinster medals, earning his first in 2002.

GRAND SUCCESS: Dublin's Brian Fenton. Pic: ©INPHO/Evan Treacy

The greatest period of provincial domination doesn’t look like it’s going to end any time soon. A winning run across 12 seasons and counting, Dublin left previous stretches of success like Cavan’s and Kerry’s in Ulster and Munster in the shade quite some time ago.

Thirty-seven consecutive Leinster victories since the 2011 quarter-final over Laois is a tale of utter supremacy as it is one of a competition that jumped the shark quite some time ago.

Their superiority is no longer understood in superlatives but in sums:

1 – Their tightest winning margin was experienced 12 years ago when Bernard Brogan sent over the decisive free he won, much to the ire of Kildare, who contested that he wasn’t tripped for it. Dublin had been playing for half an hour without Eoghan O’Gara who was sent off early in the second half. Not since 2012 has a team come within a score of Dublin at the final whistle.

2 – Dublin boast four of the top five biggest all-time winning margins in Leinster finals and two have come in this current era, the 21-point victory against Meath in 2020 (3-21 to 0-9) and two years before that the handsome victory over Laois (18 points, 1-25 to 0-10).

4 – Euros, the average price of a pint of Guinness when Dublin last lost a Leinster game, the semi-final against Meath in 2010 when they were routed for five goals. In Dublin city centre, the average cost of 568ml of stout is now €6.40.

6 – The number of years when Dublin have one or more fellow Leinster counties for company in Division 1 (Laois 2012, Kildare (2013, ‘14, ‘18, 22), Meath (2020) and Westmeath (‘14). Dublin were relegated with Kildare last year but have since bounced back up.

7 – The number of times they have beaten Sunday’s opponents Kildare since 2011. They have met Meath on eight occasions followed by Kildare then Laois (6), Westmeath and Wexford (5). They have yet to meet Offaly in this winning run. Their aggregate scoreline against Kildare reads 17-132 to the Lilywhites’ 5-72. That’s an average of 26.1 points versus 12.4 points, a mean winning margin of almost 14 points.

8 – Of Dublin’s 37 games have been played outside Croke Park, the last three of them in the home venues of their quarter-final opponents, Wexford (twice) and Laois last weekend. They’ve scored 16 goals across the eight matches and their average winning gap is 17.6 points. Of the eight, five have been played in MW Hire O’Moore Park.

12 – The amount of provincial senior medals won by Michael Fitzsimons and James McCarthy, McCarthy having made his championship debut in the first of this run of 37 wins. Like everyone on the current panel but Fitzsimons and Stephen Cluxton, he has no experience of losing a game in Leinster. The returning Cluxton has 16 Leinster medals, earning his first in 2002.

27 – A massive proportion of their 37 wins have come by 10 points or more, the odd ones out including the entire 2011 and ‘21 campaigns. Seven of their successes have been 20 points or better – three have been 19-point margins.

31 – Their biggest winning margin recorded against Westmeath in the 2017 semi-final, 4-29 to 0-10. Last Sunday’s 27-point cushion over Laois equalled their opening-day cruise against Longford in 2015, 4-25 to 0-10. Behind that was the 26-point hammering of Louth at the same stage in ‘19, 5-21 to 0-10.

31 – Also the number of times they have found the net in these 37 games, compiling 79 goals. On the flipside, they have kept 22 clean sheets, nine of them stretching from the 2018 Leinster semi-final to the ‘21 quarter-final. Seventeen goals have been scored against them, never more than two in a game, as was the case in Portlaoise.