Donegal cruise past Meath to set up All-Ireland decider with Kerry

Jim McGuinness saw his side account for the Royals at Croke Park.

GOLDEN MOMENT: Donegal's Ciaran Moore celebrates scoring a goal. Pic: INPHO/Bryan Keane

DONEGAL 3-26 (3-1-24) MEATH 0-15 (0-2-11) 

Donegal and Kerry will clash in their second-ever All-Ireland and first since 2014 after the Ulster champions ransacked Meath in this All-Ireland semi-final.

Second-half goals by Oisín Gallen, Ciarán Moore and Conor O’Donnell augmented a five-point half-time lead (0-13 to 0-8) on a 20-point cruise of passage to the final. This was a walk in the park and by the end they were strolling through a gassed Meath defence.

Donegal could even afford to retire Michael Murphy from the game in the 45th minute with the scoreline reading eight points in their favour. The decision was a topic of conversation for the 82,000 Croke Park crowd going by the murmuring that followed his departure but it was calculated.

Gallen’s 42nd minute goal coupled with Murphy’s last point and last act of the game a minute later catapulted Donegal into that heading. When Ciarán Moore was put through to bulge the net a second time seven minutes later after a great turnover by Finbarr Roarty initiated the attack, the difference had widened to 11 points.

A Shaun Patton 45 following a Billy Hogan save from Ciarán Thompson stretched the margin to 12. Conor Duke and Eoghan Frayne stemmed the haemorrhaging albeit temporarily as the wound gushed with a flurry of Donegal scores.

After an excellent start by Donegal, profligacy was the name of game for the two teams for most of the half. Meath scored six times in the first half but registered nine wides and dropped two short.

Donegal didn’t hit their first wide until the 17th minute by which time they had six points kicked into the breeze, which included a two-point free by Murphy. Meath themselves had raised two orange flags themselves via Frayne and Ruairí Kinsella.

Kinsella’s in the 13th minute had brought Meath within one and after Michael Langan’s first point Keith Curtis soon cancelled it out. However, Meath had to wait 17 minutes before their next score, which came courtesy of Curtis.

In that period between those points, they struck three wides and dropped a couple of attempts short. Donegal struck five in a 10-minute period but were hitting the target some of the time and their lead expanded to five by the half-hour mark as Meath counted the loss of Bryan Mention to a leg injury.

As Donegal threatened to turn the screw, Donal Keogan kept out a Conor O’Donnell shot in the 31st minute and Hugh McFadden’s effort was denied by Billy Hogan a couple of minutes later after Caolan McColgan’s point attempt struck the post.

Successive Meath points by Curtis and Jordan Morris gave the Leinster runners-up a little respite but no sooner had Morris scored his point that it was being cancelled out by Oisín Gallen’s second score and Murphy had goal on his mind with the penultimate attack of the game but settled for a point.

Scorers for Donegal: M. Murphy (0-6, 1 tpf, 1 free); C. McDonnell (1-3); O. Gallen (1-2); C. Moore (1-1); M. Langan (0-4); P. McBrearty (0-3 each); C. Thompson (0-2); S. O’Donnell, R. McHugh, S. Patton (45), P. Mogan, D. Ó Baoill (0-1 each) Scorers for Meath: E. Frayne (0-5, 1 tp); R. Kinsella (1 tp), K. Curtis (0-3 each); J. Morris, M. Costello (free), C. Duke, S. Rafferty (0-1 each).

DONEGAL: S. Patton; F. Roarty, B. McCole, P. Mogan; R. McHugh, E. Gallagher, C. McColgan; H. McFadden, M. Langan (c); C. Thompson, S. O’Donnell, C. Moore; C. O’Donnell, M. Murphy, O. Gallen.

Subs for Donegal: P. McBrearty for M. Murphy (45); J. McGee for H. McFadden (50); C. McGonagle for C. McColgan (52); D. Ó Baoill for R. McHugh (55); O. McFadden-Ferry for P. Mogan (59).

MEATH: B. Hogan; S. Rafferty, S. Lavin, R. Ryan; C. Caulfield, S. Coffey, D. Keogan; B. Menton, A. O’Neill; M. Costello, R. Kinsella, K. Curtis; C. Duke, J. Morris, E. Frayne (c).

Subs for Meath: C. Gray for B. Mention (inj 21); E. Harkin for A. O’Neill (46); J. McEntee for S. Lavin (50); B. O’Halloran for K. Curtis (57); S. Walsh for R. Kinsella (inj 62).

Referee: P. Faloon (Down).