Meath fade in final quarter

Dublin could afford a dozen wides at Croke Park today as they retained the Leinster SFC title with a merited 2-15 to 0-14 victory over Meath who put in a great first-half shift to lead by 0-9 to 1-4 at the interval.

With “The Boys Are Back In Town” booming over the public address, Dublin were presented with the Delaney Cup, but Meath can take lots of positives out of this game as they prepare for the qualifiers in a fortnight.

Dublin out-scored Meath by 1-4 to 0-1 during a crucial 10-minute period in the second-half and that was vital in the outcome.

Paul Mannion's goal was the big score in what was a tight game for about 50 minutes after Meath took the game to the champions in the opening half.

Meath made a great start with a brace of points from Stephen Bray inside a minute, but Dublin were boosted by a Paul Flynn goal soon after Manion opened their account from play with a point to lead by 1-1 to 0-2 after about four minutes.

Meath continued to dominate, but tallied wides from Mickey Newman, Bray, Graham Reilly, Peadar Byrne and Damien Carroll with an ambitious goal attempt before Diarmuid Connolly pointed Dublin into a 1-2 to 0-2 lead in the 16th minute.

Mannion increased Dublin's advantage when he pointed a free,  but Newman got Meath going again when he found his range from a free before Paddy O'Rourke's save denied Connolly a goal.

 Stephen Cluxton converted a '45' for Dublin in what was their last score of the half and signalled a period of dominance for Meath.

 Bray carved an opening for Eamon Wallace who turned on the pace and fisted over.

Peadar Byrne was fouled and Newman converted the first of three-in-a-row (two frees) which drew the sides level (0-7 to 1-4).

 It got better for Meath before the break with Wallace confidently splitting the posts and Newman sending over a free for a 0-9 to 1-4 advantage against the reigning champions.

However, five points in the second-half was never going to be good enough to win a Leinster title.

 

Dublin - S Cluxton (0-3); K O'Brien, R O'Carroll, J Cooper; J McCarthy, G Brennan, J McCaffrey; MD Macauley, C O'Sullivan; P Flynn (1-1), C Kilkenny (0-3), D Connolly (0-1); P Mannion (1-4), E O'Gara, B Brogan (0-1). Subs K McManamon for O'Gara, D Bastick for O'Sullivan, D Daly for Brennan, D Rock (0-2) for Brogan, B Cullen for Connolly.

Meath - P O'Rourke; D Keogan, K Reilly, B Menton; P Harnan, M Burke, S Kenny; B Meade (0-1), C Gillespie; P Byrne, D Carroll, G Reilly; E Wallace (0-2), S Bray (0-2), M Newman (0-8). Subs - P Gilsenan for Byrne 42 mins, C Lenehan for Kenny 50m, J Sheridan (0-1) for Carroll 52m, A Tormey for Meade, 60m, D McDonagh for Wallace 65m.

Meath must now focus on the qualifiers and will be back in action on the weekend of 27th July.

See Mick O'Dowd's brief interview with TV3 (click on video link if necessary). 

Conall Collier