Kildare 0-13
Dublin 0-22
Ger McNally reports from Nowlan Park
DUBLIN PROVED TOO hot for Kildare to handle in the summer sunshine at Nowlan Park as they finished comfortable nine-point winners over Kildare.
Dessie Farrell’s side started without a number of injured players, such as Jack McCaffrey, Davy Byrne, Ciaran Kilkenny, Paul Mannion, and they were forced into a further late change when Cormac Costello was a late withdrawal due to a precaution over an ankle injury.
However, in a show of real strength in depth, some of their replacements went on to have outstanding games, particularly Colm Basquel who ended the game as their top scorer with five points.
The opening of the game was played at a helter-skelter pace and after a frantic end to end opening quarter, the scores were tied at 0-5 points apiece.
Dublin appeared to be playing a risky game at that stage of the match by pushing up the field and leaving gaps at the back but the closest Kildare came to punishing them to the maximum was an eighth minute shot by Darragh Kirwan that brought a smart save out of Stephen Cluxton.
Gradually Dublin began to wear Kildare down and six unanswered points moved them into an 0-11 to 0-5 lead by the 25th minute.
Dublin led by 0-13 to 0-8 at the half time break but had to then weather an early storm from Kildare at the start of the second half. Ben McCormack scored the first two points after the restart but Kildare proved to be their own worst enemies when two pieces of squandered possession led to points from Sean Bugler and a Dean Rock free.
That set the tone for an error strewn performance from Kildare in the second half, with every error ruthlessly punished by a clinical Dublin side.
There was five points between the sides heading into the final 20 minutes but as Kildare tired, Dublin took off another scoring burst and doubled their lead by scoring five points on the trot.
A Kevin Feely mark may yet prove important for Kildare as scoring difference could yet prove crucial after the final round of games in two weeks but it was scant consolation on the day for Glenn Ryan’s team as Dublin ran out comfortable winners.
Scorers for Dublin: C Basquel (0-5); C O’Callaghan, D Rock (2fs) (0-4 each); S Bugler (0-3); P Mannion (0-2); N Scully, K O’Gara, B Fenton, T Lahiff (0-1 each).
Scorers for Kildare: N Flynn (0-5, 2 frees, 1 45); B McCormack (0-3); D. Kirwan, P Woodgate (f), A Masterson, K O’Callaghan, K Feely (m) (0-1 each).
Dublin
Stephen Cluxton
Daire Newcombe, Michael Fitzsimons, Sean McMahon
Brian Howard, John Small, Lee Gannon
Brian Fenton, James McCarthy
Niall Scully, Sean Bugler, Colm Basquel
Dean Rock, Con O’Callaghan, Killian O’Gara.
Subs: Paul Mannion for O’Gara (HT), Lorcan O’Dell for Rock (48′), Tom Lahiff for O’Callaghan, Cian Murphy for Small (both 59′), Greg McEneaney for S. MacMahon (70+1′)
Kildare
Mark Donnellan
Mick O’Grady, Shea Ryan, Eoin Doyle
David Hyland, Kevin Flynn, Jack Sargent
Kevin O’Callaghan, Aaron Masterson
Paddy McDermott, Ben McCormack, Alex Beirne
Neil Flynn, Darragh Kirwan, Paddy Woodgate
Subs: Ryan Houlihan for Doyle, Tony Archbold for Sargent (HT) Kevin Feely for Masterson (48′), Paul Cribbin for McCormack (54′)
REFEREE: Sean Hurson (Tyrone).
The elephant in the room is Cantwell she destroyed it.
@Kevin Byrne: I like to say she castrated it
An article that needed writing. The Sunday Game has become a fast forward show now. Can’t believe what they have done to it
Why not show more of the highlights and less of the back patting analysis the newest panelists are just yes men and dribble on.missed more good scores from play in highlights of munster game and spend 10mins talking waffle
It’s become a bit like sky’s coverage of soccer. Bland and too cosy,afraid to criticise the product ie hurling or football game that they have just watched.
Stop ticking boxes and go back to the grass roots of the program too many women covering the men’s game there I’ve said it
@Gareth: should get a real man like you in Gareth, that’d sort it.
McBennett has ruined sport on RTE. Has got rid of any entertaining pundits. Now it’s just drab, boring stats from the likes of Cora Staunton, Eamonn Fitzmaurice (Fr. Stone) and co. Nobody cares if Monaghan have won 62.8% of their long kick outs. Jacqui Hurley is decent, Cantwell is useless. She should be in a class room talking down to children and not front and centre of all sport.
McBennett’s been a disaster whether intentionally or by dint of being a shill of an organisation that’s long since ceased to be relevant or functional. The intensely poor presentation of Jackie Hurley or the robotic Damian Lawlor sits side by side with amateur, innane punditry where once there was entertainment and insight. Maybe they can’t be blamed for the bags the GAA has made of the schedule but they could at least try to inspire particularly amid reams of brilliant hurling games. It’s terrible. It follows the patterns of RTÉ’s collapse in standards in sports presentation and coverage in recent years.
I note that the other comments here are focussed on the punditry. I find that the quality of the production, camera work, editing of footage of the actual games has deteriorated significantly in recent years. It’s often disjointed in terms of editing, behind the play in terms of camera work , the colour etc can be poor quality and they highlights editor doesn’t capture the highlights in my opinion. Then you have the punditry. They have gone down the PC road. This is both in terms of make up of panel and approach to analysis. I remember seeing a Graeme Souness interview where he said that working for RTE was a breath of fresh air compared to working for Sky/BT because you were free to say what you thought without issue after the production. That no longer seems to be the case.
Good article. It’s gone far too boring, really. It was genuine entertainment back in the day. The average viewer doesn’t care too much for kick out stats or possessions. Very, very sterile and I’ve stopped watching.
I wouldn’t blame Joanne Cantwell, however. She is a fine presenter, just has had a different remit due to McBennett.
@An tEoghanach: Cantwell is a disaster.
Highlights too short for me
Cantwell is an awful presenter… Too patronising for my liking…
@Ray Farrell: I’d be a fan of Ursula. She doesn’t pretend to be something she’s not.
I’d be confident in saying that past pundits and presenters had a genuine interest in the sport and growing its popularity but that the new crew have a large interest in their self promotion and career advancement or at least it comes across that way.
Yes the show has got worse but lets look at the product..the football games year on year now are almost unwatchable, maybe 2 or 3 good games in the whole championship. Remember growing up watching the drawn Dublin/Meath games..full of exciting attacking play. No way could sit down now and watch a game except maybe semis or final. And then the genius GAA bring in a format where 4 teams get eliminated after 24 games. And everyone knows who they will be. Hurling TBF is exciting and a different watch completely.
Too many people with agendas like Joe canning and ml.duignan .
@john mcgrath: what about shane dowling? He declared on national TV that shoulders to the head are just part of munster hurling. Wonder was it because it was 2 of his buddies who were giving the shoulders to heads
@john doe: He didn’t say that. He was commenting on Back room team members running from the bench to strike players on the field. As is the norm now you have taken his comments completely out of context to suit your agenda. What he actually said was that things can happen on the field in the heat and pace of championship hurling but what should never happen and can never be accepted is mentors and/or officials entering the field of play and assaulting players. That is what he said.
@Tim Dawson: anyone who promotes gambling is dead to me
@Barry Baz: I wasn’t aware, until now, that he did. I don’t judge a man for making a legal living. I don’t support gambling either and recognize how damaging it can be.
@Barry Baz: what are you on about Barry Baz? Genuine question.
@john doe: no he didn’t?
@Tim Dawson: I actually think it is you that is removing the context. The conversation was about Flanagan’s foul that was ignored (I say ignored because in his report he said he saw it, but decided not to punish it) by the ref and when asked about it Dowling passed it off as part of the game and, in an attempt to deflect from it, highlighted the Waterford mentor’s dig at Gearoid Hegarty.
@Dappy McMahon: oh he most definitely did
With everything PC now, hard to get a balance between a good argument and all smiles like in the US and lately the UK coverages. A bit boring to say the least.
If you close your eyes while listening to Paul Flynn, you can almost imagine that Dave Fanning is on the panel.
On a more serious note, why is the live games on Sunday afternoon the first game on The Sunday Game that night? I know the obvious answer jumps out ,that being they are perceived as being the biggest games of the day..Obviously they are because they have already been chosen as the live games.
To spend so much time undermining the ref from x players, who should know better I guess they have to earn the money, when they have different camera angles, slowed to step by step movements
And zooming into action
I find that type of discussion infuriating
A ref gets one fleeting moment to call each action
Stick to comments as the game was played
And with out agendas
We all know why it’s gone sh it.
But not aloud say it.
Ha I’m sure as fu#% not. Well on this platform anyways