DUB THUMPING
Antrim put in their place as capital men stroll to Leinster victory
DUBLIN manager Mattie Kenny says they’ll be facing All-ireland favourites next weekend when they meet Galway in the Leinster SHC semi-finals.
Donal Burke’s 0-11 haul and goals from Cian O’sullivan, Ronan Hayes and Cian Boland secured Dublin’s passage to the last four.
And their reward is a glamour last four clash with in-form Galway, scheduled for Portlaoise at 2pm next Saturday.
It’s two years now since Dublin took down a genuine hurling superpower - which just happened to be Galway in the 2019 Championship at Parnell Park.
They’ll be optimistic of another huge win after this 18-point demolition of Antrim who hinted beforehand after a bright league that they might pull off an upset.
But after a tight first 15 minutes or so, the Dubs pulled away and won at their ease, leaving Antrim with a preliminary round qualifier on July 10/11 to prepare for.
As for Dublin, who had 13 different scorers at Pairc Tailteann, boss Kenny said they’ll face the ultimate test next weekend.
Kenny said: “Ask any hurling person in Ireland and I think they’d say that
Limerick and Galway are the two f avourites for the Championship this year. Galway are in massive form at the moment.
“I’ve watched all their games and the range of scores they have, the way they’re moving the ball, they’re in top, top form.
“We know going down to Portlaoise next weekend that that’s going to be a massive, massive challenge for us but look, it’s the Championship, this is where we want to be, it’s where we want to be playing.”
Antrim, who beat Clare in the league and drew with Wexford, were level with Dublin five times in the
quarter.
But they fell away badly after that with a second quarter Dubs blitz leaving them in the clear at half-time.
Kenny said: “We knew coming up that Antrim were going to be a huge threat. They had a really, really good league but forewarned is forearmed. We got into the game early and the first 10 or 15 minutes were tight, Antrim were playing well at the time. I think we got our first goal
then around 20 minutes and that really set us on our way.” That was pretty much how it panned out as Dublin, executing a short-passing style to near perfection at times, surged 1-17 to 0-12 clear at half-time.
Rian Mcbride’s second point for Dublin in the 47th minute stretched the gap to 10
points. And goals from Hayes and Boopening land either side of the second water break sealed the deal.
Hayes’ was a beauty after great work by Conor Burke while Boland poked home from close range after a long delivery from Alan Nolan wasn’t dealt with.
Dublin ran in their full allocation of subs and there were scores from Fergal Whitely, Oisin O’rorke and Sean Moran.
Paul Crummey also came on for sibling Chris and almost pinched a fourth goal but his clever volleyed effort snuck just over.
Going to Portlaoise next week is a huge challenge for players