GAELIC GAMES:A TURBULENT May Day in Croke Park turned into a carnival for Dublin hurling. It is too early to declare yesterday's raucous league final as proof that nothing can stop the pale blue men from concocting magical summer days of championship hurling on the Jones Road in the months and years to come. But here, at last, was a real reward for many years of patient work on the city game.

The Dublin hurlers’ ascension to their first league title since 1939 was a procession in the end: six long minutes of injury time defined by a succession of delightful Dublin scores against a helpless Kilkenny, none more so than the exuberantly whipped point by Conal Keaney from under the shadow of the Hogan Stand and into the delighted blue crowd on the Hill.

Keaney’s point carried not just through the strong breeze but also through all those decades that Dublin hurling people spent feeling like street urchins looking in the window at sumptuous feasts. Here was a taste of the big time.

Those added minutes gave the rollicking Dubs in the crowd of 42,030 a chance to appreciate what they had witnessed. By then, all threat of the fabled Kilkenny comeback – killer goals, a precise blitz of points – had disappeared.

This was a dark day for the most glittering and feared team in the modern game, and as they stood together on the field afterwards to listen to Johnny McCaffrey’s speech, it was obvious the match had given them much to think about.

Nobody predicted a 0-22 to 1-07 score line, and even if the match had been slanted by the first-half red card handed to Eoin Larkin, nobody anticipated Dublin serving Kilkenny their worst day in Croke Park since 1990, when Offaly went to town in the Leinster championship.

Anthony Daly was a wide-eyed nobody from Clarecastle back then. Yesterday, plainly chuffed by the latest feather in a busy cap, the Dublin boss admitted he was proud of the way Dublin won it as much as anything. On an afternoon of stout and tetchy challenges, his team never flinched but they stayed true to Daly’s license to hurl with freedom.

“Fellas did come out and play. That was the big thing beforehand. Come and play with a bit of freedom and don’t be getting caught up in the big occasion. Nobody knows that better than me going into big days with Clare. Worried about tickets and parades and where to bring the cup and all that rot. It is all about the 70 minutes.

“And we did play a bit nervous early on. We tried to take it in our stride as we have been doing all year.”

This was a gripping and peculiar conclusion to the league. Dublin rode the strong breeze to land some fabulous first-half scores, with Ryan O’Dwyer – a rare country accent in the city dressing-room – setting the tone with a sublime early point.

They were sharp and confident thereafter, with Liam Rushe wonderfully deft and inventive at midfield and Paul Ryan scoring for fun.

Shorn of so many summer names, Brian Cody may have guessed that this would be no vintage black-and-amber day; nonetheless, the sideline must have been a frustrating place for him.

Just three Kilkenny scores were wrung from the first half, a scrambled goal from poacher supreme Eddie Brennan the one bright moment of that period.

Larkin’s dismissal was a big moment, but John Dalton’s reaction to Conor McCormack as the half-time whistle went illuminated just how vexed the Kilkenny men were in mindset. McCormack had broken free to fire past David Herity in the Kilkenny goal just after referee Michael Wadding whistled for half-time tea.

When McCormack bumped against the Kilkenny defender on his way out from goal, he was met with a hurl in the ribs for his trouble, a reckless second that stands in direct opposition to Dalton’s career form.

By then, Cody and Daly were talking to one another and both turned to see the players milling around the fallen Dublin man. Afterwards, Cody was still unaware of what had caused the commotion.

“In fairness, Dublin should have had a goal, I thought. Because to blow the half-time whistle when a team is attacking is a very strange thing to do and I would have had no complaints. I just turned around then and hadn’t a clue what happened. Not an idea.”

Cody was as composed in the aftermath of this early summer setback as he has been on those September Sundays when Kilkenny looked invincible.

Yesterday, the stripy men looked a hollow force at times. So many of the clever touches and composed passes came from Dublin sticks, and even though the second half was broken by a long injury delay for the battling Joey Boland, the expected Kilkenny rally never materialised.

But Daly looked a bit queasy at the notion that this might be a sign of things to come.

“Well. Sure they were down six marquee players,” he cautioned. “Any team to be down Tommy Walsh and Henry Shefflin – the two best players of the last 12 years – never mind the rest of what they were down. To be writing them off, I’d say you’d be confused.”

But it was a day of beautiful confusion for the Dubs. After so long, it came so emphatically.