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A U G U S T
A U G U S T
2 0 1 3
Provincial round - up
Daire WALSH
2 0 1 3
and Michael Newman twice cancelled each other out from placed balls, but with Ben Brosnan (two), Lyng, half-back Adrian Flynn, PJ Banville and Brian Malone all finding the target, the Yellow Bellies held a four-point cushion 26 minutes in. A trio of late points by Graham Reilly, Eamonn Wallace and Peadar Byrne left The Royals trailing by just one point (0-8 to 0-7) during the break, but quick-fire scores from Brosnan and Malone after the restart helped Wexford to regain focus. Yet, by the time Redmond Barry added his team’s 11th point mid-way through the half, Meath had hit a purple patch, which saw them registering five points without reply – three from Newman and two from Reilly. It was still a one-point game as the game moved into its final ten minutes, but Meath had the much stronger finish to the proceedings, as they book their place in the final with the final three scores in a morale-boosting 0-18 to 0-13 triumph. Having disposed of Kildare in ruthless fashion, Dublin were red-hot favourites in the July 14th Leinster decider, and with a potential hurling-football double in the province on the cards, there were plenty of warning signs for Meath ahead of their trip to the capital.
History was made in Croke Park on Sunday July 7th, as Dublin were crowned Leinster Senior Hurling Champions for the first time with an outstanding 12-point victory (2-25 to 2-13) against reigning holders Galway at Croke Park in front of a crowd of 36,657. Having overcome Wexford at the second time of asking at the quarter-final stage, Dublin were moments away from recording their first Championship triumph over All-Ireland Champions Kilkenny in 71 years, but a last-gasp TJ Reid point meant that the Sky Blues once again finished in a stalemate at O’Moore Park, Portlaoise. However, they approached the replay in a confident mood, and with Paul Ryan and David ‘Dotsy’ O’Callaghan chipping in with 0-4 apiece, they were four points to the good (0-11 to 0-7) at the half-way point. Both of Kilkenny’s starting midfielders, Cillian Buckley and Michael Rice had been replaced before the half-hour mark (by Lester Ryan and Colin Fennelly respectively), but thanks largely to the sharp-shooting of Eoin Larkin and Richie Power, they trailed by the bare minimum (013 to 0-12) moving into the final quarter. However, Danny Sutcliffe’s 53rd minute major (which arrived after O’Callaghan had seen his effort cleared off the line) helped to reenergise the Metropolitans, and although Power displayed magnificent leadership throughout for The Cats, the Carrickshock man was given his marching order late on for a second yellow-card offence, and when substitute Eamonn Dillon fired over an insurance score in stoppage time, Dublin had done enough to seal a memorable 1-16 to 0-16 success. The task for Daly was to try and re-focus his players after the elation of this win, as eight days later they faced the 2012 champions, Galway, who needed final-quarter goals from Davy Glennon and Aonghus Callanan to see off the stern resistance of Laois in their penultimate round fixture. The sides were evenly matched during early exchanges, when braces from Ryan and O’Callaghan were cancelled out by Tribesmen efforts from Joe Canning (two), Conor Cooney and Iarla Tannian, but Dublin held the aces for the remainder of the half, and brought an eight-point cushion into the break thanks to a plethora of points – including a couple by Ryan O’Dwyer and captain Johnny McCaffrey – and a 25th minute major by the elusive Ryan. With their confidence now sky high, Dublin stretched their advantage to 12 when a point by half-back Michael Carton followed another marvellous three-pointer from Ryan, but with the introduction of Andy Smith, Jonathan Glynn and Damien Hayes beginning to galvanise the Westerners, they cut the deficit to six with 17 minutes to play courtesy of terrific individual majors by Canning and David Burke. The always threatening Canning was agonisingly close to reducing the margin to three inside the final five minutes, and Gary Maguire’s fantastic point-blank save did cause Dublin to raise their game late on, but thanks to six scores on the trot from Conor McCormack (two), Simon Lambert, Ryan (two) and Danny Sutcliffe, they ensured that they made the journey up the steps of the Hogan Stand for the first time since 1961.
Dublin captain Stephen Cluxton raises the Delaney Cup Waterford had forged a dramatic fight back to level matters at the end of normal time, but despite registering goals in the additional periods through Jake Dillon and Ray Barry, a Richie Hogan-inspired Kilkenny displayed incredible character to secure a 1-22 to 2-16 victory. On the same evening as they made the progression to the quarterfinals, Wexford found themselves making an early exit from the 2013 Championship, as two extra-time goals from Clare’s Cathal McInerney gave the Banner County a 3-24 to 1-20 success after a hectic 90 minutes of action. Galway were pitted against Clare as part of a double-header with Kilkenny-Cork, and at the time of writing, they were the only three teams from Leinster remaining in the Liam McCarthy Cup after Antrim and Carlow were knocked out by Liam Dunne’s Slaneysiders, and both Westmeath (who recorded a Qualifier win against provincial newboys London) and Laois were heavily defeated by Waterford and Clare respectively. The Dublin Footballers had entered their provincial semi-final against Kildare on June 30th with the prospect of a remarkable eighth Leinster SFC crown in just nine seasons on their mind. Kieran McGeeney’s charges were determined to make life difficult for the Sky Blues, though, and an early 1-1 salvo from teenage prodigy Paddy Brophy, as well as a point by the industrious Eoghan O’Flaherty, gave them an early five-point cushion. Dublin eventually settled into the proceedings with a Paul Mannion three-pointer moments after Brophy’s goal, and despite being denied further goals on a number of occasions by Kildare netminder Shane Connolly, another major inevitably arrived through Bernard Brogan in first-half stoppage time. This gave the holders a deserved 2-7 to 1-5 lead at the break. Kildare were still in contention as the action resumed, but having only added 0-4 to their total in the second half, their opponents were able to cruise towards victory. Wexford had caused a surprise in narrowly defeating Louth at the last-eight stage, but Meath’s victory over Wicklow indicated that these sides would be evenly matched. This was certainly the case early on, as Ciaran Lyng
The Royals have never had trouble raising their game against their long-standing adversaries, however, and despite falling four behind after 23 minutes when points from Diarmuid Connolly, Paul Mannion and Stephen Cluxton (two) followed Paul Flynn’s fourth minute goal, they enjoyed a barnstorming conclusion to the opening period, as five points in succession – four from the rapidly influential Newman – gave them a two-point advantage at the break (0-9 to 1-4). Thanks to the continued excellence of Newman, Meath remained in the hunt, and they had a couple of goal-scoring opportunities at vital junctures in the play. Yet, they weren’t able to take advantage of these situations, and Dublin opened up a three-point cushion thanks to fine contributions from Cluxton and the superb Mannion (two). This finally killed off the strong Meath challenge, as a 2-14 to 0-13 victory meant that Dublin had their first Leinster double since 1942. This win means that they move forward safely to the All-Ireland Quarter-Final on the August Bank Holiday Weekend, and it is hoped that they will be joined by some of their fellow Leinster competitors in the last-eight. Unfortunately, four of the province’s teams were eliminated in their Round One Qualifiers, with Offaly and Wicklow suffering particularly disheartening reversals to Tyrone and Armagh. Carlow loss to local rivals Laois in a Friday evening game by a margin of ten points (3-13 to 0-12) after a positive opening, while Westmeath finished the 2013 Championship without a win, as they were edged out 3-10 to 1-15 by Fermanagh. The Round Two draw produced a couple of Leinster derbies, as Longford and Kildare were drawn at home to Wexford and Louth respectively. Aidan O’Brien’s Wexford needed goals from Daithi Waters and PJ Banville to force their game into extra-time, but they pushed on during the additional periods to record a 2-15 to 0-16 victory. The Lilywhites had a tricky assignment against Louth, but although they trailed for large portions of the game, a late goal from the powerful Tomas O’Connor gave them a much-needed 1-19 to 0-15 success. The Laois and Clare game in Ennis pitted the O’Moore County against their former manager, Banner supremo Mick O’Dwyer, but despite the presence of the great Waterville man on the sideline, Laois recovered from a slow start to emerge victorious 3-17 to 0-10 – the goals coming from Ross Munnelly, John O’Loughlin and Darren Conway. Similar to the previous round, Wexford twice found the Laois net courtesy of Banville and Paddy Byrne in their Round 3 encounter at Wexford Park, but with Ross Munnelly registering 0-8, Justin McNulty’s charges were the ones to progress on a score line of 0-16 to 2-8. n
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