Dublin Demolish Westmeath To Reach Seventh Leinster Final In-A-Row
Dublin 4-29
Westmeath 0-10
Derek Ryan at Croke Park
Dublin will face Kildare in the Leinster football final on July 16th, after a facile win over Westmeath at Croke Park this afternoon.
A 31 point victory for the Boys in Blue today did neither side any good, as Dublin strolled into a seventh Leinster decider in-a-row.
Westmeath held their own in the opening stages, defending deep but breaking forward at pace when they had the ball.
The midlanders were level at 0-4 apiece after 11 minutes.
However, the Dubs kicked on a gear from there, navigating the blanket defence with some sharp shooting from distance from Paddy Andrews and Con O'Callaghan in particular opening up the gap.
Jim Gavin's men were also finding space in behind the parked bus, with some last ditch defending from Westmeath denying Con O'Callaghan, Dean Rock and Jack McCaffrey goals.
Ciaran Kilkenny also blazed wide, with the goal at his mercy after 25 minutes.
However, a Dublin goal wasn't far off- a superb run from Eric Lowndes set up Rock to palm the ball into the net on 27 minutes.
Four further scores before the break gave the Boys in Blue a 1-15 to 5 point lead at half time.
Jim Gavin hit out at the media coverage of the Diarmuid Connolly incident after the game.
It was more of the same in the second half, with the game played at training ground pace.
Dublin carved through the Westmeath defence like butter, with Paul Mannion adding two further scores early in the second period, before Eoghan O'Gara ended any minuscule hopes of a Westmeath revival.
The Templeogue Synge St attacker rifled Dublin's second goal to the roof of the net on 41 minutes.
After that, the scores came fast and easy- Mannion among the most impressive for Dublin, kicking 8 points for Jim Gavin's men.
Just as Westmeath felt things couldn't get any worse, Gavin brought Bernard Brogan and Kevin McManamon off the bench.
Ciaran Kilkenny slotted home Dublin's third goal of the game on the stroke of 70 minutes, while McManamon rounded off the scoring, by slamming in Dublin's fourth goal deep into injury time.
It's the qualifiers for Westmeath, while Dublin march on to a Leinster decider against Kildare next month.