Leinster Senior Football Final

DUBLIN 0-20 KILDARE 1-9

By John Harrington at Croke Park

Dublin won their 11th Leinster Senior Football title in succession with a straightforward enough victory over Kildare in Croke Park this afternoon.

It was a workmanlike rather than inspired performance by Dessie Farrell’s team. They were as good as they needed to be to win the match, but it might be a relevant statistic that it was their smallest winning margin in a Leinster Final for eight years.

When you win six All-Irelands in a row you’re judged by a very high standard, and the suspicion remains that Dublin are still operating somewhat short of their usual level.

The only goal-chance they created came in the dying embers of the game, they kicked some poor wides, and generally didn’t play with the sort of combination of poise and thrust that has been their calling card in recent years.

In fairness to Kildare, they deserve a lot of credit for making life difficult for Dublin throughout this match.

They were very well-organised, tackled themselves to a standstill, and in general played with great spirit.

They started in lively fashion with Jimmy Hyland opening the scoring after three minutes with a crisp left-footed finish after he’d created a yard of space with a quick turn.

The Lilywhites had come with a game-plan based on defending in numbers and then playing the ball patiently up the field.

The net result was that they didn’t offer up too many of the turn-overs that Dublin have a habit of turning into scores, but the downside was that it was going to be difficult for them to create many opportunities themselves because they played quite laterally and just didn’t have enough bodies in Dublin’s half of the field.

Still, Jack O’Connor would have been happy enough with how the first quarter played out as Kildare kept pace with Dublin relatively easily.

It was three points apiece by the ninth minute when Kevin Flynn linked well with Daniel Flynn to win a free that Jimmy Hyland converted.

There was nothing wrong with Dublin’s work ethic which was summed up by a great Cormac Costello tackle deep in his own half on Daniel Flynn, but there was very little sparkle to their play in an attacking sense.

James McCarthy did his best to inject some urgency into his team’s performance when he charged forward to score a fine point, but that sort of incisive play was a rare occurrence.

When Jimmy Hyland won and converted a mark just before the water-break there was just a point between the teams, and Kildare were very much in the contest.

Another fine Hyland point, this time with his right-foot, on 25 minutes drew great roars of approval from the Kildare support who were clearly starting to sense a vulnerability in the six-in-a-row All-Ireland champions.

The sight of players like Ciaran Kilkenny and Brian Howard hitting the sort of poor wides you wouldn’t normally associate with this Dublin team offered further encouragement to the underdogs.

Their problem though was that while they were able to stifle Dublin’s attack, they didn’t have the wherewithal to hurt them at the other end of the field, and a policy of containment was only going to work for so long.

Dublin eventually started to grind their way to a bigger advantage on the scoreboard as points from Rock, Costello, and Con O’Callaghan helped them into a 0-9 to 0-5 lead at half-time.

The second-half followed a similar pattern. Kildare defended staunchly, but they were never going to be able to plug every leak that appeared.

Nice scores from Daniel Flynn and Neil Flynn kept them in touch for a while, but when Dublin then hit four points in as many minutes to open up a eight point gap, you knew the game was over as a contest.

Ciaran Kilkenny kicked two of them having earlier kicked two poor wides in the first half, and his own performance was a microcosm of how Dublin had now found an extra gear.

Kilkenny had worked hard throughout the game, but now he was being clinical. So too Dublin as a team.

The match looked like it was petering out completely in the final quarter as Dublin played keep-ball and clipped the occasional point, but then on 62 minutes Kildare supporters were given something memorable to take home with them when Daniel Flynn scored the only goal of the game.

Flynn did brilliantly to dispossess James McCarthy, barrelled past Jonny Cooper, and then uncorked a piledriver to the left corner of the net for one of the goals of the championship.

As good a score as it was it did little to change the flow of the match, and Dublin finished with a flourish courtesy of points from Kilkenny, Costello, and Ryan Basquel to secure the county’s 60th Leinster Senior Football title.

Scorers for Dublin: Dean Rock 0-5 (3f), Ciarán Kilkenny 0-4 (1m), Cormac Costello 0-4, Niall Scully 0-2 (1M), Paddy Small, James McCarthy, Brian Howard, Con O’Callaghan, Ryan Basquel all 0-1.

Scorers for Kildare: Daniel Flynn 1-2 (1f), Jimmy Hyland 0-4 (1f, 1M), Alex Beirne, Brian McLoughlin, Neil Flynn all 0-1.

DUBLIN: Evan Comerford; Michael Fitzsimons, David Byrne, Jonny Cooper; Brian Howard, John Small, Seán McMahon; Brian Fenton, James McCarthy; Paddy Small, Ciarán Kilkenny, Niall Scully; Cormac Costello, Con O’Callaghan, Dean Rock. Subs: Eoin Murchan for John Small (42), Colm Basquel for Dean Rock (54), Sean Bugler for Paddy Small (61), Tom Lahiff for Jonny Cooper (69), Ryan Basquel for Con O’Callaghan (71), Emmet Ó Conghaile for Ciaran Kilkenny (73)

KILDARE: Mark Donnellan; Mark Dempsey, Mick O’Grady, Darragh Malone; Ryan Houlihan, David Hyland, Kevin Flynn; Luke Flynn, Aaron Masterson; Shea Ryan, Fergal Conway, Neil Flynn; Ben McCormack, Daniel Flynn, Jimmy Hyland. Subs: Alex Beirne for Fergal Conway, Niall Kelly for Ryan Houlihan (both 46), Darragh Kirwan for Jimmy Hyland (59), Brian McLoughlin for Neil Flynn (62), Shane O’Sullivan for Ben McCormack (64)

Ref: Martin McNally (Monaghan)