Dublin 2-15 Offaly 1-10
Dublin withstood a spirited first-half effort from Offaly in the Leinster under-21 HC final at O’Connor Park in Tullamore tonight before piling on the scores in the second half to secure their sixth hurling title at this grade.
Oisín Kelly’s penalty after 12 minutes set Offaly up with a four-point half0time lead but that lasted just 90 seconds after the restart as Séan Treacy struck the first of his two goals.
Treacy’s second after 42 minutes gave Dublin their first lead of the tie and Offaly never looked like reeling them in from there in the face of a dominant Dublin back line.
A large crowd of 4,709 supporters filed into the midlands venue looking for some solace after the senior representatives of both counties were eliminated from the race for the Liam McCarthy cup at the weekend and in the early stages it looked as if Offaly’s sixteen year drought in Leinster competition might be about to come to an end.
Defensively the home side were superb, with Ben Conneely performing incredibly well in his one-on-one battle with Dublin danger man Chris Bennett, while all across the back line Offaly hooked, blocked and tackled like terriers.
Four placed balls from the stick of Bennett and a Cian Mac Gabhann score, brilliantly assisted by Andrew Jamieson-Murphy, was all Dublin posted in the first half, while at the other end of the field Offaly’s inside forward duo of Oisín Kelly and Emmet Nolan were a constant threat, despite being outnumbered close to goal.
Offaly’s star duo came into this game with nine goals in their two outings so far (against Kildare and Carlow) and they rounded that up to a perfect ten when Nolan earned a penalty that Kelly fired home after twelve minutes.
Nolan also picked off a couple of excellent points from play to give Offaly a 1-6 to 0-5 interval lead, which looked significant enough in a low scoring encounter.
It took Dublin just a minute and a half to wipe out that lead entirely, Jamieson-Murphy splitting the posts after thirteen seconds before Seán Treacy fired a low shot past Eoghan Cahill to tie up the game.
Offaly responded admirably to their concession and after Nolan and Kelly each won a free, Dylan Murray’s subsequent conversions restored a two point gap.
Jamieson-Murphy halved that lead with the second of his four points from play and in the fortieth minute Dublin delivered a hammer blow to the Offaly cause, Treacy again the finisher who applied the killer blow.
A long ball out of defence by Jake Malone was well fielded by the younger brother of senior star David inside the large parallelogram and his kicked finish gave Dublin their first lead of the game.
By now Dublin had taken control of the game at midfield and half back and while their inaccuracy up front ensured that Offaly remained in touch, a flurry of scores between the 47th and 53rd minute put clear daylight between the sides.
Liam Langton came off the bench to fire Offaly’s last score of the game but by now the fitness and athleticism of the Dublin players was very evident and late points from Seán Ó’Ríain, Rian McBride and Jamieson-Murphy wrapped up their victory and secured their place in the All Ireland semi-final lineup, with the next outing scheduled to take place in August.
Offaly: E Cahill; B Conneely, D O’Toole-Greene, P Delaney; D Healy, C Doughan (0-01 free), D Doughan; D Wyer, P Guinan; J O’Toole-Greene (0-01), D Murray (0-05, 0-04 frees), R Hughes; A Cleary, E Nolan (0-02), O Kelly (1-00, pen).
Subs: C O’Brien for Healy (19), C Freeman for Cleary (44), JP Cleary for Hughes (51), L Langton (0-01) for Wyer (53), E Parlon for Guinan (60+2)
Dublin: J Treacy; J Madden, E O’Donnell, C Hendricken; S Barrett, C Mac Gabhann (0-01), J Bellew; J Malone (0-02), M McCallion; A Jamieson-Murphy (0-04), R McBride (0-01), E Conroy; S Treacy (2-02, 0-01f, 0-01 ’65), S O’Riain (0-01), C Bennett (0-04, 0-03f, 0-01 ’65).
Subs: C Boland for McCallion (23), C O’Neill for Bennett (44), P O’Dea for Hendricken (51), F Ó’Ríain Broin for Malone (55), E McHugh for Conroy (57)
Referee: Alfie Devine (Westmeath)
