Frustration for Royals as Dubs cruise to victory

For the second week in a row, Shane McCormack's Meath ladies looked like a shadow of the side that had made such a great start to their NFL campaign.

Dublin 2-19

Meath 0-9

Tom Gannon

One uncharacteristically poor performance can be written off as an bad day at the office, but two in a row means that something is amiss.

Shane McCormack will be desperately disappointed that, for the second week running, his Meath side failed to make any sort of impression as Dublin romped to victory at Parnell Park.

Meath suffered a terrible spell early in the first-half when Dublin scored 2-3 in the space of five minutes and the Royals never recovered.

If the result wasn't bad enough, Meath fans were dealt another hammer blow six minutes into the second-half. After being introduced at half-time, Maire O'Shaughnessy had not yet settled into the match before she went to ground by herself. The Donaghmore/Ashbourne woman got back to her feet but didn't last much longer and soon she was being helped off the field.

Credit to the Dubs, they seized momentum early on and for the majority of the contest, held on to it. Carla Rowe showed once again why she is one of the best footballers of this generation and she secured 1-5 for herself.

From a Meath perspective, there weren't many positives to take from the individual performances but Marion Farrelly and Kerrie Cole were, at times, a nuisance for the Dublin defence.

After a missed placed Meath pass, Dublin went on the counter attack and secured the opening score through Rebecca McDonnell. A couple of minutes later Meadhbh Byrne played a ball through to Ciara Smyth and the Skryne woman almost raised the green flag but her shot came flying back off the post.

Carla Rowe gave Dublin an early two-point advantage before Kerrie Cole responded for the Royals. Kate Sullivan restored Dublin's advantage before Robyn Murray came to Meath's rescue and denied Caoimhe O'Connor a fantastic goal-scoring opportunity.

Then came an absolute onslaught from Dublin. In the 11th and 12th minute, Rowe secured two points in quick succession. In the 13th minute, O'Connor burst through again and this time her shot did find the back of the net. In the 14th minute, Rowe got pointed for the fourth time and a minute later she got on the end of some good play and fisted to the Meath net for Dublin's second goal. In the space of five minutes, Dublin had extended their lead from two to 11 points.

Niamh Hetherton added her name to the scoreboard before Rowe and Smyth traded points in the closing stages of the opening half. A disastrous couple of minutes at the end of the first quarter for Meath had massively helped Dublin and they led at the break 2-8 to 0-2.

Marion Farrelly started the second-half brightly and she split the posts twice in the early stages. Dublin responded with an Eilish O'Dowd score before Emma Duggan got off the mark with a free.

Following her introduction in the 33rd minute, Hannah Tyrrell began to have a huge impact on proceedings and she was directly involved in Dublin's next three points. The Na Fianna club woman scored twice and set up O'Connor for the third.

Duggan pulled two points back for the Royals with a brace of frees before they were swiftly cancelled out by O'Sullivan and Hetherton. Duggan then scored her fourth free but Dublin responded again with another two points from Tyrell and one from Chloe Darby.

Vikki Wall who had been relatively quiet for her standards, got a score on the board in the 58th minute but Dublin finished the contest strongest with two late points courtesy of Sophie McIntyre and Darby.

Dublin - Abby Shiels; Jessica Tobin, Leah Caffrey, Aoife Curran; Hannah McGinnis, Martha Byrne, Niamh Donlon; Eilish O'Dowd (0-1), Grace Kos; Caoimhe O'Connor (1-1), Niamh Hetherton (0-2), Aoife Kane; Kate Sullivan (0-2), Carla Rowe (1-5 four frees), Rebecca McDonnell (0-1). Subs - Sophie McIntyre (0-1) for Curran 25m, Hannah Tyrrell (0-4, one free) for McDonnell 33m, Chloe Darby (0-2) for Rowe 42m, Ashling Nyhan for Donlon, Annabelle Timothy for Hetherton, Claire Kirwan for O'Connor 57m, Siobhan Birnie for Kane 58m.

Meath - Robyn Murray; Aine Sheridan, Sarah Wall, Nicole Troy; Niamh Gallogly, Mary Kate Lynch, Clodagh Millington; Vikki Wall (0-1), Katie Bermingham; Megan Thynne, Emma Duggan (0-4, four frees), Ciara Smyth (0-1); Meadhbh Byrne, Marion Farrelly (0-2), Kerrie Cole (0-1). Subs - Maire O'Shaughnessy for Katie Bermingham, Orlaith Sheehy for Meadhbh Byrne both half-time, Ella Moyes for O'Shaughnessy 38m, Orla Smith for Millington 48m, Megan Collins for Farrelly 53m.

Referee - Maggie Farrelly (Cavan).