Senior footballers make it five Leinsters in-a-row

Sun, 12th July 2015

DUBLIN 2-13 WESTMEATH 0-6

Dublin’s dominance of the Leinster SFC continued on Sunday when they made it five provincial titles in succession.

A two-goal blast early in the second half shook after Westmeath’s resilience after the midlanders’ ultra defensive game-plan had frustrated Dublin in the opening half.

The Dubs led 0-8 to 0-4 at the break but failed to really open up Westmeath’s defiant rearguard.

The fact that Dublin’s opening two scores came from defenders tells its own tale as Philly McMahon and James McCarthy showed up in attack to split the posts.

Dublin did not have many close range sightings of goal with Ciarán Kilkenny powering through before firing narrowly over the crossbar on the one occasion that Dublin properly breached the Westmeath cover.

However, five minutes into the second half Dublin showed good patience in possession before Paul Flynn broke in around the back of the defence and his floated pass was palmed to the net by Bernard Brogan.

From the resultant kickout the Dubs raged forward again for Jack McCaffrey to accelerate through on goal and blast to the net, it was suddenly 2-9 to 0-4 in Dublin’s favour and the result as good as sealed.

In a contest that never fully ignited Diarmuid Connolly lit up Croke Park with three brilliant executed points from long-range as well as a sublime crossfield pass for the industrious Kilkenny to fire over.

The ‘miracle comeback’ Westmeath had staged against Meath in their semi-final was never on the cards as Dublin dealt well with Westmeath’s forward play as they cruised to another Leinster title.

SCORERS - Dublin: B Brogan 1-1, C Kilkenny, D Connolly 0-3 each, J McCaffrey 1-0, D Rock (0-2f) 0-2, P McMahon, J McCarthy, MD Macauley, A Brogan 0-1 each. Westmeath: J Heslin 0-3 (0-2f), K Martin 0-2, F Boyle 0-1.

DUBLIN: S Cluxton; J Cooper, R O'Carroll, P McMahon; J McCarthy, C O’Sullivan, J McCaffrey; B Fenton, MD Macauley; P Flynn, C Kilkenny, D Connolly; D Rock, K McManamon, B Brogan. Subs: M Fitzsimons for Cooper (ht), P Andrews for McManamon (47), D Bastick for Macauley (51), A Brogan for Rock (55), J Small for McMahon (61), T Brady for Connolly (65).

WESTMEATH: D Quinn; K Maguire, F Boyle, K Daly; D Lynch, P Sharry, J Dolan; P Holloway, D Corroon; G Egan, R Connellan, J Gilligan; K Martin, S Dempsey, J Heslin. Subs: K Gavin for Dempsey (ht), P Greville for Lynch (ht), C McCormack for Connellan (52), D Glennon for Holloway (53), J Egan for Heslin (inj 62), J Gonoud for McCormack (inj 64).

ATT: 47,840.