Dublin 2-20
Tipperary 0-14
Niall Kelly reports from Parnell Park
DUBLIN GOT THEIR Division 1A campaign off to the perfect start with two valuable points against an underwhelming Tipperary.
Goals in either half from Eamonn Dillon and Liam Rushe helped the Dubs to a 12-point victory in Parnell Park and handed new manager Ger Cunningham his first league win.
With reigning league and All-Ireland champions Kilkenny up next for the Dubs, this will ease the pressure of what is sure to be a ferociously competitive campaign and leave them to build towards a quarter-final place rather than looking nervously over their shoulder at another relegation tussle.
For Tipp, it was another defeat on opening weekend — their fourth in the last five seasons.
Eamonn O’Shea’s side were well off the pace, let down by some wayward shooting, and can thank John “Bubbles” O’Dwyer for helping them to save some face. He finished with six points, five from play, which lent the visitors’ total a bit more respectability.
O’Shea will also count the cost of injuries to Shane McGrath, who suffered a suspected concussion, and Joe O’Dwyer, both of whom are now doubts for next Sunday’s clash with Galway.
Dublin showed seven changes from the side beaten by Tipp in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-finals but again, it was the positions rather than the names on the team-sheet that caused the most intrigue.
Michael Carton slotted in at full-back once again with Peter Kelly in front of him while Conal Keaney — wearing 10 — was one of the most impressive performers in his first inter-county start at wing-back.
Liam Rushe’s move to full-forward appears to have gone beyond the experiment phase and he was pitched in an intriguing battle with Paul Barrett and came off best, setting up one goal and scoring the other as the clock hit the red.
The St Pat’s man supplied the perfect pass for Dublin’s opening goal on 17 minutes, and Dillon’s finish left Tipp keeper Darren Gleeson with no chance.
The goal gave Dublin a 1-5 to 0-2 lead after what had largely been a nip-and-tuck opening. Ten first-half wides did not help Tipp’s cause, not least when many of them came from Seamus Callanan who was so reliable with placed balls last summer. McGrath and O’Dwyer were their only scorers from play as they trailed 1-11 to a paltry 0-5 at the break.
Jason Forde took over free-taking duties after Callanan missed another early in the second half but Dublin kept the scoreboard ticking over with points from Shane Durkin, who had a fine afternoon, Rushe and Paul Ryan, who finished as their top scorer with 0-8 (four frees, one 65)
Tipp did have something of a purple patch, orchestrated by Bubbles, where they outscored Dublin by 0-6 to 0-2 but it was never going to be enough.
Cian Boland was lively when he came off the Dublin bench for the final 11 minutes, scoring one point and setting up two more for Dillon and Danny Sutcliffe, before Rushe applied the gloss with a fine finish for the second goal in additional time.
Scorers for Dublin: Paul Ryan 0-8 (4f, 1 65), Eamonn Dillon 1-2, Liam Rushe 1-1, Danny Sutcliffe, Mark Schutte 0-2 each, Colm Cronin, Ryan O’Dwyer, Chris Crummy, Shane Durkin, Cian Boland 0-1 each.
Scorers for Tipperary: John O’Dwyer 0-6 (1f), Seamus Callanan 0-4 (3f), Shane McGrath, Jason Forde (1f), James Woodlock, Conor O’Brien 0-1 each.
DUBLIN
1. Alan Nolan
2. Cian O’Callaghan
3. Michael Carton
4. Paul Schutte
5. Shane Durkin
6. Peter Kelly
7. Chris Crummy
8. Danny Sutcliffe
9. Ross O’Carroll
10. Conal Keaney
11. Eamonn Dillon
12. Colm Cronin
13. Paul Ryan
14. Liam Rushe
15. Mark Schutte
Substitutes:
22. Ryan O’Dwyer for O’Carroll (14)
24. Cian Boland for O’Dwyer (59)
20. Ben Quinn for Cronin (61)
26. David O’Callaghan for Ryan (65)
19. Johnny McCaffrey for Durkin (68)
TIPPERARY
1. Darren Gleeson
2. Cathal Barrett
3. Paul Curran
4. Joe O’Dwyer
5. Kieran Bergin
6. Conor O’Mahony
7. Padraic Maher
8. Shane McGrath
9. Brendan Maher
10. Denis Maher
25. Gearoid Ryan
12. James Woodlock
13. John O’Dwyer
14. Seamus Callanan
15. Jason Forde
Substitutes:
23. Ronan Maher for Denis Maher (HT)
26. Thomas Stapleton for McGrath (HT)
24. Conor O’Brien for O’Mahony (53)
18. Michael Breen for Joe O’Dwyer (67)
Jesus he wouldn’t be human if it hadn’t affected him
There’s obviously the gust and bluster that goes with McGregor, he’s built up that caricature and it’s served him well. People will love or hate it but either way they’ll have an opinion on him and that’s what it’s designed to do but anytime you hear or read the stuff the lad talks about away from directly promoting a fight he comes across as a genuine, intelligent, hard working lad. Credit to him and the job he’s doing.
I’m being a bit overly cynical here and perhaps Conor is being very honest about what happened but I just hope that he’s not using the death of that Portuguese fighter as a bit of a smokescreen for whatever it was that was really going on.
That’s not his style, Nobody knows what he was talking about. Just speculation and could be anything.
Aye I’m aware of that, I did say that I was probably just being overly cynical and from what I’ve seen from McGregor he seems too honest and wears his heart on his sleeve too much to really ever be a convincing liar.
So next time you are being overly cynical and feel like you probably are, Why don’t you keep it to yourself instead putting it out there and talking crap.
cool your jets pro chef it’s an observation with no malice.
People look to deep into things, His budgie could of had a broken wing for all we know, He’s human with human problems. He was asked a question and he answered it, He told it how it was after that lad died and he was one of the first to offer his condolences.
Floyd Mayweather needs him?lol.he would need a hurl to land a blow on Floyd in a boxing ring.
John, Mayweather would need a hurl to land a blow on mcg in an mma fight.
In terms of making a 100 million off record ppv ,yes Floyd needs conor, a fight against Danny Garcia is not going to pull in the kind of numbers to make Floyd a 100 millions,even though this anticipated match up with boxing v mma is a complete publicity stunt by Floyd, and has worked fantastically
Irish begrudgery is alive and well judging by the last couple of days. First I see dozens of comments criticising McIlroy for donating his prize money to charity now people are accusing McGergor of using a man’s death for publicity.
I find it hard to believe when conor is giving honest and heartful opinion on how he felt, people still piss all over it.
Don’t let the Luas drivers read this
In 36 months he be on im a celeb get me outta here with ant and dec game over !!
Eh, like, eh 3 years like!?
He’s like marmite you either love him or hate him
Or think he’s alright but talks a lot of balls sometimes.
Marmite doesn’t talk a lot of balls but I don’t care much for its opinions on the Middle East.
He’s like marmite, he’s a dark savoury spread made from yeast and vegetable extract..
A new low for McGregor
$100 million? Absolutely laughable. What a cod.
It’s a bit hard to stomach the apparent grief displayed by McGregor and his regular taunts to opponents, eg prior to Aldo fight:
“I’m hungry right now. I’m prepared to kill this man and unify the belts.”
All shyte talk I suppose.
Not one mention of the Diaz rematch…something tells me he shot his mouth off a wee bit too much and he realised he was going to get 7 bells knocked out of him for a second time, then it would be game over.
This kind of sport does attract a certain kind of people. So violence will follow.
Oh your right I guess that’s why the majority of the athletes in the ufc either have degrees or MAs, military distinctions, run their own businesses, represent their countries at Olympic and national level, have black belts in multiple disciplines or teach martial arts and self defence to kids and their communities but yeah I guess they could also be that lay about, uninspiring, undisiplined kind of people and how stupid and “violent” are the fans for appreciating these low lifes! Your an ignorant fool.
Nick, 2 guys boxing the heads off each other is violent! It doesn’t take a degree to figure that out.
Brick wall.
@dublinlad interesting viewpoint you hold, do you see all contact sports in this light, or just MMA? Or if you are a fan of violent sports – do you just prefer the nice accents from the “certain kind of people” that attend rugby matches…
Typical. Time to hurl rocks at the bandwagon you just jumped from.
He pulled out of the media obligations to see if he could flex his pulling power to renegotiate a bigger wedge,he lost and then to use the death of a fellow pro for sympathy points The man has no shame
Egg chaser you haven’t a clue what your talking about.
Jaysus using the death of a fellow pro as an excuse, disgusting
If he was doing that it would have come up weeks ago when everything blew up. It’s obvious to me that he didn’t want to even mention it at the Time.
Conor had the perfect opportunity to show how upset he was by putting is hand in his pocket to pay to get the guy home but he didn’t and an undertaker had to offer his services for free. Talk is cheap.
I’m sure his mother has had press knocking on the door 7 days a week since he hit the big time. And not a mention from Conor of not wanting to leave Paddy Holohans retirement gig in Iceland… Gunnar Nelson described on MMA Hour how it was first time the core SBG team had been together in over 2 years and he didn’t want to leave. Ah well at least he’s come to his senses and said sorry to his bosses – we might get to see him fight again.
Idiot