McDonagh Cup champions no match for sharp shooting Dubs
Cian Boran and Muiris Curtin try to crowd out Dublin's Sean Currie Photo: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane
A scoring spree of 1-6 without reply between the 15th and 25th minutes gave Dublin the platform to turn this All Ireland Hurling Championship Preliminary Quarter Final in their favour and severely dented Kildare’s chances of making this game a lot closer than it turned out.
Playing six days against a Tier 1 team after capturing the Joe McDonagh Cup was always going to be a difficult task for Kildare and that task was made all the more difficult when they had to line out without one of their talisman, James Burke, who manager, Brian Dowling, confirmed afterwards, had suffered the dreaded ACL injury late in the Joe McDonagh Final last weekend and so will be out of action for a year.
The game was played in atrocious conditions with heavy downpours throughout causing ponding on the pitch at times. Both teams deserve credit, however, for battling manfully to defy those conditions. It was a positive opening from Kildare, after which they led 0-2 to 0-1 after seven minutes with David Qualter (free) and Jack Sheridan (play) responding with points to Seán Currie’s opening free for Dublin.
The game turned Dublin’s way in the first instance when Cian Boran was caught in possession and corner forward, Ronan Hayes pounced to beat Paddy McKenna in the Kildare goals. Dublin’s second goal came in that dominant ten-minute spell in the second quarter in a move that involved Brian Hayes, Paddy Dunleavy and Chris Crummey with Diarmaid Ó Dúlaing finishing with aplomb in the 17th minute.
Kildare had to wait until the 25th minute before David Qualter added a free but by half time Dublin had tacked on four more points through the likes of Currie, Hayes and Ó Dúlaing to lead 2-14 to 0-5 at the break.
Kildare could have thrown in the towel at that stage but to their eternal credit they refused to do so, despite the hand that they had been dealt. By the 62nd minute Kildare had matched the Dubs score for score at 0-8 apiece with Qualter (frees), Cian Boran and Gerry Keegan cancelling similar effort from Currie (frees) and Chris Crummey. A goal by centre half forward, Fergal Whitely in the 65th added further icing on the Dublin cake and it is they who will face Limerick in the All-Ireland Quarter Final next weekend.
Despite the loss Kildare players left the field to the strains of The Curragh of Kildare and a rousing send off from the big, vocal Lilywhite support.
Seán Brennan; John Bellew, Paddy Smyth, Conor McHugh; Paddy Doyle, Chris Crummey 0-3, Paddy Dunleavy; John Hetherton, Brian Hayes 0-2; Riain McBride 0-3, Fergal Whitely 1-1, Diarmaid Ó Dúlaing 1-4; Seán Currie 0-8 (5 frees), Cian O’Sullivan 0-2, Ronan Hayes 1-1 SUBS: Conor Burke B/S for Fergal Whitely 27, Fergal Whitely for Conor Burke B/S Reve4rsal, Conor Burke 0-1 for Riain McBride 44, Conal O’Riain for Cian O’Sullivan 50, Andy Dunphy for Paddy Dunleavy 51, Seán Gallagher for Brian Hayes 58, Darragh Power for Ronan Hayes 65.
Paddy McKenna; Richy Hogan, Rian Boran, Daniel O’Meara; Simon Leacy, Cian Boran 0-1, Paul Dolan; Daire Guerin, Cathal McCabe; Liam O’Reilly, Gerry Keegan 0-1, David Qualter 0-8 (6f’s, 1 X ’65); Darragh Melville, Cathal Dowling, Jack Sheridan 0-1 SUBS: Jack Travers 0-1 (free) for Cathal McCabe 44, Harry Carroll for Liam O’Reilly 50, Muiris Curtin for Jack Sheridan 58, Killian Harrington for Cathal Dowling 60, Oisín Lynam for David Qualter 66.
James Owens (Wexford)
