Under-21 Football All-Ireland Final: Dublin 0-12 Tyrone 0-7 With the championship nearly 40 years old, Dublin finally captured the All-Ireland under-21 football title at Navan on Saturday before a crowd of about 10,000. It was a deserved victory against Ulster champions Tyrone, who were unable to surf the wave of the county's first senior All-Ireland success six days previously
This was a final with specific contexts. The counties had met in a minor final two years ago, won easily after a replay by Tyrone, and in last year's under-21 semi-final, well won by Dublin. Since then the counties have had contrasting experiences.
Dublin were embarrassingly beaten by Galway in last year's final at this grade and suffered a traumatic summer at senior level, whereas Tyrone have continued onwards and upwards to a League and All-Ireland double.
"These corridors are very lonely places when you get to the big day and don't perform," said Dublin selector Paul Caffrey, philosophical in victory.
"That's the worst way of losing a final and nine of those fellas lost a final that way last year. It had a huge bearing on how we approached it. A lot of fellas felt they'd let themselves down badly last year and wanted to atone for it. What better way than to get back to the same stage?"
Dublin gave an accomplished performance. They worked extremely hard, covering back with a vigour that would have been fairly familiar to Tyrone, never lost their defensive concentration and attacked with aplomb, especially in the second half.
"We didn't want to be beaten in the championship at senior level this year," said Dublin manager Tommy Lyons - liberated from the "beleaguered" tag after a difficult summer with the seniors - "but it allowed us to regroup and refocus on this and put in a lot of work. We haven't had a summer off the job."
A strong, gusting wind blew through the cold afternoon sunlight. It mightn't have been fully behind Dublin in the first half but it created a pressure to establish a decent lead before the break.
For long periods it looked as if Dublin weren't coping with that pressure. They struggled to find space and looked jittery at the back, occasionally complicating straightforward defensive functions by fumbling the ball.
Declan O'Mahony and Pádraig Brennan worked hard at centrefield but Tyrone's Peter Donnelly got hold of more possession.
The Ulster champions rejigged their line-up before the start, senior centrefielder Seán Cavanagh moving to centre forward and Joe McMahon dropping back from the wing.After the break Cavanagh went into the full forwards but wasn't able to establish the familiar rhythm of his fluent, mobile attacking game.
Dual player Conal Keaney got Dublin off the mark with the first point of the day and went on to have a good game, winning ball on the wing and acting as a link between defence and forwards. Some of his distribution was a bit wild but overall it was the sort of display that gives palpitations to the county's hurling community.
If Dublin laboured to build a lead, the early signs for Tyrone were better and they knocked off two points in relaxed, economic style within a couple of minutes. But the outstanding forward was Dublin captain Alan Brogan.
Whereas Tyrone covered well and denied their opponents space, Brogan made his own and in the 16th minute ghosted along the end-line and teed up Graham Cullen, whose shot on goal was blocked. In the 10 minutes before half-time Dublin built their lead, assisted by Paul Copeland's good save from Rory McCann, which stood at 0-6 to 0-3 at the break.
"It's as easy to play against the wind sometimes as with it so we weren't at all concerned and in fairness the lads dug deep and were a credit to their county," was Lyons's analysis of what looked like a precarious interval lead. "I thought when we kicked two or three great points into the wind it was always putting it up to them and they were never getting a run at us. Our half-forward line and midfield were putting in huge tackles and so were the full forwards."
That was the key to the decisive second half, during which Dublin outscored their opponents, who came forward with belief but didn't have Dublin's sheer, frantic appetite for work.
"We thought we were in with a good chance," reflected Tyrone manager Peter Doherty. "Probably those scores we missed were significant because we appeared to get anxious after missing.
"Once you get anxious then it's the long ball in and Dublin crowded their defence and they're very physically strong and good at carrying the ball out.Then the space that created up front - they were good at exploiting that as well."
From the 34th minute when Brogan pointed Dublin's first second-half attack, the match conformed to a pattern: Tyrone attacking with more gusto than coherence, Dublin packing the back and winning the critical ball - with a deep-lying Graham Cullen effective as a lone scavenger. When the ball was turned over Brogan, John Noonan and Declan Lally were unleashed at speed and the scoreboard ticked away to keep the match beyond Tyrone's flailing touch.
DUBLIN: P Copeland; N Kane, M Fitzpatrick, P Griffin; N Cooper, B Cullen, C Prenderville; D O'Mahony (0-1, a free), P Brennan; C Keaney (0-1), L Óg Ó hÉineacháin, D Lally (0-2); A Brogan (0-3), G Cullen (0-2), J Noonan (0-3, one free). Subs: D Murray for Cooper (46 mins), M Lyons for Ó hÉineacháin (60 mins), S Walsh for G Cullen (60 mins).
TYRONE: J Devine; S Sweeney, K McCrory, D Carlin; O Devine, M Garry, P O'Farrell; P Donnelly, J McMahon (0-1); K Hughes, S Cavanagh (0-1), R McCann; L Meenan (0-2), M Penrose, A McCarron (0-2, one free). Subs: T McGuigan (0-1) for McCann (30 mins), P Armour for O'Farrell (41 mins), D McDermott for Penrose (48 mins). Booked: Penrose (40 mins), Garry (47 mins).
Referee: G Kinneavy (Roscommon)
