Dublin 4-6; Derry 0-11
Con O’Callaghan is the man who more than any other will decide where Sam Maguire resides come high summer in 2023.
Missing through injury last year when Dublin were only beaten a point by Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final, he showed on Sunday just how un-markable he is when it comes to a big occasion at Croke Park.
Almost single handedly, he transformed the complexion of this Division 2 final against Derry by cutting through the Oak Leaf defense like a hot knife through butter to set up a goalfest - not to mention the other clear cut chances he created but were spurned by less gifted teammates as well.
So there you have it - if Dublin are to win the All Ireland, this man will be the centre-piece in its offensive formation while Paul Mannion’s return as a sub and Jack McCaffrey’s imminent comeback means Dessie Farrell will have a much stronger hand as he glides through Leinster versus Wexford or Laois and the like to the All Ireland series in the coming months.
In many ways, this was a superior game to the Division 1 final between Galway and Mayo and Derry manager Rory Gallagher will go back to the defensive drawing board to make sure his backs don’t get cut to ribbons again in championship fare.
The good news for him is that O’Callaghan is one of a kind, by far the most direct and accurate forward in the country and there are none operating like him in the Ulster championship.
Even better news for Farrell is that he can now bring his squad slowly to the boil as there is nothing, repeat nothing, in Leinster that will even approach the standard of an A v B game in Parnell Park during training sessions.
If he can get Niall Scully, Brian Fenton and Dean Rock, who was injured early in Sunday’s game, motoring in the interim, he will have a full hand and plenty of aces to play by the time the business end of this year’s intercounty activity comes around.
Sunday was also good for him to see some of the younger brigade, most notably the impressive Killian O’Gara and Lorcan O’Dell while the positioning of skipper James McCarthy at midfield allowed Tom Lahiff to have a more influential display at wing forward where he acted as a third midfielder.
With the possibility of the incomparable Stephen Cluxton also back on the pitch for the championship, Farrell could be forgiven for feeling giddy as he looks ahead to the rest of the season.
Said the Manager: “Our objective was to gain promotion and we did that and today is just icing on the cake. It was great to get another competitive game and throughout the league we were trying to get that balance right between being very competitive to ensure you were setting yourself up the best opportunity to get promoted, but also trying to blood some younger, newer players and maybe try out some different tactics and strategies as well.
“So it was a bit of a balancing act and thankfully we were able to get through in the way we did."
Speaking of the glut of goals that came after a barren period in the league, he pointed out: "Obviously goals are hugely helpful, particularly in low-scoring games like that. They're big momentum shifters and it's something we'd spoken about, something we've been working on and we knew in the second half some opportunities may present themselves when fatigue sets in.
"It can be more difficult to keep the defense very compact the way Derry like to play and they did remarkably well at it for long periods but there were one or two opportunities and one or two openings that we were able to create and we were thankful to be able to take them.”
Derry Boss Gallagher accepted that his defense had been filletted with the goal opportunities and also emphasized that his opponents left a few behind as well.
"Dublin are always dangerous at getting goals and they took them brilliantly and probably left one or two behind," he declared.
"I felt that in the first half we should have stretched our lead far more – we were only two up and we missed a good goal chance and a number of chances. But we were playing against Dublin who are a brilliant team with a brilliant group of players, and it was a great test. So we’ll just get out head around Fermanagh now in 13 days’ time so that will be very exciting,” he added.
"There are a lot of huge learnings, you take the positives and take the negatives, you only fail when you don’t learn. We have a very single-minded approach.
Getting four goals in a match is rare enough, getting them in one half as Dublin did on the changeover is rarer still but as they say, goals wins matches.
And that was definitely the case on Sunday when they turned a half time deficit into a seven-points victory thanks to goals, mainly made by O’Callaghan, from Killian O'Gara, Paul Mannion, John Small and Lorcan O'Dell.
Young O'Gara got the goals flowing three minutes into the second half and once substitute Mannion slotted home a penalty, we were treated to a vintage brace from play from raiding defender John Small, while O'Dell's 68th minute effort was the most sensational of the four, though it could be argued he was going for a point and was happy to see the ball dip into the corner under the crossbar.
This is Derry’s first loss of the year and with talisman Conor Glass forced off with a leg injury so close to championship time on Saturday week, Gallagher will have more than a few worries on his mind.
Dublin will enjoy the rather banal Division 2 title for about five minutes before looking forward to a duck-shoot against either Wexford or Laois on April 23.
Dublin: D O'Hanlon; M Fitzsimons, D Byrne, D Newcombe; C Murphy, J Small (1-1), L Gannon (0-1); B Fenton (0-1), J McCarthy; C Basquel, S Bugler, T Lahiff (0-1); K O'Gara (1-1), D Rock, C O'Callaghan Subs: C Kilkenny (0-1) for Dean Rock 9, L O'Dell (1-0) for Basquel 44, P Mannion (1-0 pen) for O'Gara 44, N Scully for Lahiff 55, R McGarry for Bugler 68.
Derry: O Lynch; C McCluskey, G McKinless, P McGrogan (0-1); C Doherty, P Cassidy, P Cassidy (0-2); C Glass (0-1), B Rogers; N Toner (0-1f), E Doherty, B McCarron; B Heron, S McGuigan (0-6, 0-3f), N Loughlin Subs: L Murray for Heron 35, S Downey for Glass 39, N O'Donnell for Doherty 47- 52, M Downey for Heron 57, E McEvoy for McGrogan 68, O'Donnell for Rogers 73-f/t.
Ref: L Devenney (Mayo).
