Another 80-90% effort from Dublin and another win where they took their foot off the pedal as the game went on.
Paddy Bradley was class for them and he was always dangerous but I thought we coped reasonably once Griffin was switched onto him instead of McConnell. And then McConnell actually came onto a game a bit and did well away from Bradley in the second half at any rate.
Whelan was overshadowed a bit at the start but took one super ball after about 15 minutes and then had a cracking game from then on. Ryan was poor beside him though. Sloppy in possession and didn’t get on many of his destructive runs.
Scoring from the forwards was top notch really. You’ll always have complaints but 18 points is a good return in any game. Vaughan took his frees very well. Like the way he doesn’t have a particular routine: he’s just old school put the ball down, few steps back and knock it over. Bernard Brogan was excellent also. Went out of it a bit but he kicked some lovely points.
As always there was plenty of room for improvement and I thought we were a bit naive tactically at times. In the last 5 minutes they went chasing a goal and they took everyone out of their full forward line leaving Griffin in alone against Bradley. We brought in Johnny Magee and a couple of forwards when it was screaming out for us to drop a man back there to sweep up the breaking ball. Bradley got one chance and nearly got another because he was left 1v1. None of that was Griffin’s fault who competed well but we needed to take steps to protect him.
I couldn’t believe how naive Dublin were at the end. Most of the other teams in the country would have had 2, if not 3, men back in on Bradley for the last 5 minutes. Bradley’s got an awful lot of upper body strength and to leave Griffin, a very capable man-marker but much lighter than Bradley, in there on his own was crazy stuff. They were very nearly punished for it.
Dublin deserved to win it though. Whelan had an excellent game overall, Bernard Brogan has been a real find and I liked Sherlock’s link up play, movement and point taking yesterday.
Definitely room for improvement from many of their players and I thought the full back line looked creaky enough even after the early switch between McConnell and Griffin. Alan Brogan and Keaney were held relatively well so in that sense an 18 points tally was impressive.
The difference in class between the Dublin-Derry and Cork-Sligo games in terms of shooting was just HUGE. Real quality stuff in the former. Vaughan and B.Brogan have been real finds in truth.
Yeah, Bernard Brogan was excellent and sometimes you need to have a new addition in a bit of first-season form and confidence. Whelan’s having a great season and as long as Vaughan’s swaggering free-taking is working for him its grand. Certainly preferable to Mossie Quinn’s clear attempts at positive thinking as he nervously eyes up the posts.
On the minus side, thought Brian Cullen didn’t have a great game especially with some desperately wasteful distribution. Although he came into it later on, McConnell still looks a bit green and you’d worry for him against Kerry. Keaney’s had a couple of very quiet games now and I never really get Collie Moran.
And of course the real problem with Dublin is mental. It’s hard to envisage them getting any amount of points up where Kerry will think they can’t pull it back.