Dubs are crowned Leinster Champs
- Jul 14,2013
TG4 Leinster Senior Final
Dublin 3-14 Meath 0-09
Report: Sinead Farrelly
As the sun streamed over Dr. Cullen Park in some very hot and tough conditions, the stage was set for the Leinster final between old rivals Dublin and Meath.
Just 50 seconds in Dublin were off the mark with a goal from full forward Lyndsay Peat. This was swiftly followed up with a point from Noelle Healy and a narrow wide from Amy McGuinness.
Meath regained possession and with it began their attack and it resulted in their opening point coming from Bridgetta Lynch.
A close shot on goal from Dublin's Sinéad Aherne was followed by another wide point attempt from McGuinness, but Dublin kept the pressure on and Healy scored another point.
A foul on Meath's Katie O'Brien gave them their first free of the game and it resulted in a point.
Peat scored her second goal of the game and brought Dublin six points ahead.
A strong Meath midfield brought them back the ball and Aedin Murray scored a point for her side.
A foul on Healy got Meath's Eileen Rahill a yellow card and sent her to the sin bin. Dublin got a free which Natalia Hyland took but it went wide.
A constant struggle for possession meant that the ball switched sides many times but in the end Dublin's Lyndsay Davey scored a point and straight after had another shot but it went wide.
As Dublin got the ball back Orlagh Egan scored her first point of the game.
Meath made a move toward the Dublin goal but some good defence kept the ball away. Soon after Peat added a point to her two goals.
Some stunning defence from Dublin's Leah Caffrey once more kept Meath from scoring but they still held possession and kept up the attack and it gave a good return when Geraldine Doherty scored a point for Meath.
A mistake in the Dublin defence gave possession back to Meath and Doherty capitalised and took another point for her side.
Meath's O'Brien stood to take another free and took full advantage once more with another point five minutes before half time.
With less than a minute before half time Dublin took a free kick, it didn't go in but they held onto the ball and Healy scored a point.
At half time the score stood at 2 06 to 6 points in favour of Dublin.
As the second half began Dublin's Aherne wasted no time in getting the attack underway and scored a point within the first 30 seconds of play. She soon followed this with Dublin's third goal and further tightened their hold over Meath.
Dublin made the first substitution bringing on Kim Flood for Natalia Hyland. Meath quickly followed this up with the second substitution of the game bringing on Orla Byrne to replace Sinéad Coyle.
Meath took their first free of the second half and Doherty scored a point. Their captain O'Brien soon after took another point for their side.
Dublin's McGuinness scored their next point as they moved nine points clear of Meath.
Meath brought on another substitution replacing Sinéad McCormick with Helen Regan.
They then made a strong attack and had a good chance on goal but Dublin's Cliodhna O'Connor made the save.
Meath's Doherty scored her fourth point in what ended up being Meath's last score of the game.
Dublin's Lyndsay Davey had a good chance of another goal but the Meath defence stopped the score.
Both teams made some more substitutions with Dublin bringing on Niamh McEvoy for Orlagh Egan and Meath brought on Adrienne Mc Cann for Shauna Ennis.
Noelle Healy scored another point for Dublin as the fate of Meath appeared to be sealed when a strong attack kept the pressure on and tested the Meath defence.
Dublin's Davey soon scored another point and Dublin held onto possession and it lead to two points from Healy and Aherne respectively, further widening the gap between the two sides. Another point from Davey brought the difference in scores to 15 points.
There were a handful of substitutions made five minutes from the end of the game introducing Danielle Sweeney for Meath and Rachel Byrne, Ciara Ruddy and Siobhán Woods for Dublin.
With just a minute and a half to go Woods scored another point for the Dublin side.
As a vociferous crowd of Dublin supporters chanted down the final seconds of the game, Dublin won and became the Leinster champions for 2013.
Player of the match wet to a very deserving Noelle Healy of Dublin.
Speaking after the match Dublin manager Paul Gilheaney spoke about how they planned the game when considering the hot conditions; "Yeah we always knew that the heat was gonna play a huge part in it so we wanted the ball to do the work today and not the players to carry it.
It's a stifling heat, really hot out there and it was a matter of time before they got tired so we had to judge our substitutes well. We wanted to move the ball as quickly as possible to the full forward line and we thought we might get some results out of that and I think we did get some results there"
Dublin captain Sinéad Goldrick was happy with the performance but was also looking ahead to the All Ireland quarter final; "We went in and we wanted a performance out of the team and I think that's exactly what we did. We knew that we would need the full 20 panel to play with the heat and we used 20 and every one of us played our heart out so I'm delighted with the result today.
For the last two years we've lost by a point in the quarter final so we're gonna forget about the Leinster final that we had going into that and focus on whoever we're playing against. We know it is going to be a tough battle and hope that it will be third time lucky in a quarter final this year."
END.