Joe Carroll: Dublin show Louth no mercy in Leinster final rout
Dublin rolled out the heavy artillery for the Leinster final, Fenton, Cluxton, O’Callaghan, Costello, Rock, McCaffrey etcetera, etcetera. There was no need to. When you’re shooting fish in a barrel a pellet gun will do.
That’s what happened at Croke Park last Sunday, the Sky-Blues taking Louth asunder with the greatest of ease. It finished 5-21 to 0-15, a scoreline that may have broken a few records.
Has a provincial final ever had such a lobsided scoreline? Has it ever been like that before in a championship match between the counties? Has any team prepared by Mickey Harte ever been beaten into submission the way Louth were?
The crowd was big, quite possibly the biggest there’ll be for a provincial this year, most certainly in football. And although the other team was at ‘home’, Louth people came out in droves and were easily in the majority.
They had reason to make their voices heard in the first quarter. This was when Louth scored first and held the lead on three occasions. They were at it again coming up to half-time, three points in quick succession coming from Sam Mulroy, Craig Lennon and Conor Grimes.
Supporters in red had reason to acknowledge a couple of scores early in the second half; and, fair play to them, though the game was long gone beyond their team’s recall, it was the same when Mulroy and Ciaran Downey claimed points coming towards the end.
What had gone on over the previous 25 minutes or so was a complete and utter rout. Winning almost every kick-out, whether it was James Califf or Stephen Cluxton who executed it, Dublin scythed their way through the Louth defence even more devastatingly than they had done in the first half. It was easy for them.
The scores kept mounting with the Louth defence unable to do anything about it. On one occasion a Dublin forward hit the crossbar, the ball shooting up in the air.
James Califf made an attempt to catch it as it dropped, but with three Dublin forwards on top of him and not a colleague in sight, there was always only going to be the one outcome, another goal.
Kick-outs, so crucial in the game as it’s played today, contributed hugely to Dublin’s win. It was a talking point after the game. Whereas Cluxton misplaced a few, James Califf was forced to go long with nearly every one of his, and with Brian Fenton and James McCarthy clear winners in the midfield battle, moves for winning scores were quickly – and easily – set up.
That, however, was only one of Louth’s failures. There was the midfield rout, backs unable to keep pace with Dublin forwards, and, at the other end, an inability to get the ball to Ciaran Downey. And there was also the breaking ball. Very few of these went Louth’s way, and were often the source of a Dublin score.
Mulroy and Grimes worked hard and between them accounted for all but two of the side’s scores, Mulroy finishing with 10 to his credit. The majority of these came from placed-kicks, and if there was anyone to say something good about Louth after the game, it centred on the Naomh Mairtin clubman’s contribution.
Never has Downey been so ineffective. We saw what he was capable of in the comeback against Westmeath, but this time he was rarely on the ball and only once took a shot at goals, pointing coming towards the end.
While they hadn’t the Delaney Cup with them, Louth didn’t leave Croker empty-handed. They got a lesson, learning firsthand what is required to get among the elite. If taking it on board, they will be the better for it in the games and seasons to come.
There’s still a series of big championship outings to come, beginning with the meeting with Cork at Navan next Saturday week. This is the first in the All-Ireland series, and after that come meetings with Kerry and Mayo. A tall order (x3), but it should be seen as part of the ‘growing up’ process.