Derry 0-20 Dublin 1-12: AN ODD night in Parnell Park really. Derry came and scored 20 points, an achievement which matched their fluency and confidence. Dublin were flattered by their total and apart from a few flashes of energetic enterprise seldom looked interested enough.
And yet, all the usual caveats about the untrustworthiness of the league outweigh other dark considerations about the Ides of March.
In the aftermath, manager Pat Gilroy pointed out that his team is being shaped and focused towards June. It was a point worth reiterating because part of Dublin’s apparent sluggishness on Saturday night was down to Derry’s superior fitness at this time of the year. Derry looked like a side who are five to six weeks further down the road on their fitness. Dublin are working to a different schedule.
Apart from that, Derry are just a very good side somewhat more evolved at this stage in terms of not just knowing what they would like to do but in being practiced at doing it. Like the Dubs, their cutting edge is provided by a pair of siblings and the Bradley boys, Paddy and Eoin, cut loose in a manner which suggested that Dublin’s experimentations with their full-back line may take a different course when various Kilmacud Crokes and under-21 players become available. On Saturday the full-back line was tentative.
The lack of urgency and initiative was fatal but Dublin’s club pool would appear to offer some solutions. Starting with Paul Conlon who came on as a late substitute on Saturday night, the queue for auditions will be lengthy and will include such as Cian O’Sullivan, Paul Griffin, at least one O’Carroll brother, and possibly Hugh Gill.
There were other causes for alarm though. In the wing-forward positions Dublin struggled to dig out the necessary quota of possession and midfield was largely subservient to the impressive Doherty and Muldoon double act. And the Derry half-forwards, particularly Paul Murphy and Enda Lynn, got plenty of freedom to courier the ball around the Dublin half.
Reasons to be cheerful for Dublin? They had a couple of big guns missing and also in learning a new language, as the Dubs are doing, there will always be errors of grammar and syntax before fluency is achieved. Dublin are learning to play in a new way and anybody familiar with the quick transfer style they are chasing will have noted several players persisted in over-carrying the ball before releasing it hopefully when they crashed into a posse of Derry jerseys.
On the few occasions when the passing was performed at the right tempo and early enough you could see what Dublin are aiming to become. Derry, on the other hand, are pretty much there and consistency is what they are looking for under Damian Cassidy, a serious manager whom one imagines will get that extra few per cent out of a team which looked when winning the league at this venue last year to be capable of doing serious damage in the championship.
On Saturday they were without their rising star young James Kielt but still moved with knowingness and agility and some of their scores were sublime.
They led by a couple of points at half-time but as with the final score the margin failed to reflect their superiority. They had carved out two splendid goal chances in the first half. Fergal Doherty forced a fine save from Stephen Cluxton at the cost of a 45. A few minutes later Paddy Bradley rounded Cluxton but his shot was blocked and cleared by Paddy Andrews and Ciarán Whelan.
Derry had the better goal chances in the second half also and one in particular by the enterprising Lynn deserved better. By then they had lost Paddy Bradley due to a concussion but in his absence younger brother Eoin stepped up his own efforts. One cameo summed up the night.
Bradley scored a sublime sideline ball from 40 yards out on the left wing. From the kick-out Dublin put the ball out of play in precisely the same spot allowing Bradley to repeat the feat with a nonchalance and style that advertised his class.
In the anti-climactic final act home hope of excitement was raised when Ger Brennan fastened on to a quickly-taken free and lashed it to the net. Blaine Kelly’s point followed to reduce the gap to four points. Derry weathered it all and Barry McGuigan jabbed a point in injury time to end what was just a minor uprising.
DUBLIN: S Cluxton; P Andrews, D Bastic, A Hubbard; J Brogan, G Brennan (1-0), B Cahill; C Whelan, R McConnell; D Connolly (0-1), C Keaney (0-3), D Henry; B Kelly (0-2), K Bonner, B Brogan (0-5, two frees). Subs: A Brogan (0-1)for Bonner (32 mins), S Ryan for McConnell (40 mins), B Cullen for Connolly (43 mins), D Lally for J Brogan (47 mins), P Conlon for Hubbard (55 mins).
DERRY: J Deighan; K McGuckian, N McCusker, S M Lockhart; P Cartin, B McGoldrick (0-1), S L McGoldrick; F Doherty, E Muldoon (0-3, one free, two 45s); E Lynn, P Murphy (0-3), B Mullan (0-1); Paddy Bradley (0-4, three frees), E Bradley (0-6 two frees, two sidelines), B McGuigan (0-2). Subs: Paul Bradley for Paddy Bradley (33 mins), G O'Kane for Cartin (ht), J Diver for Muldoon (46 mins), Patsy Bradley for Doherty (54 mins), E Brown for Murphy (55 mins, yellow).
Referee: J Bannon(Longford).
