Late bloom from Orchard leaves Dubs reeling
Armagh 2-24; Dublin 1-25
A decade on from the what we could now consider in a sporting sense as Dublin in the rare ould times under Jim Gavin, the new look Blues under Ger Brennan showed some of the traits in the first half of their illustrious predecessors but looked more like a team still on the decline as they lost an 11-point lead to a ravenous Armagh side at Croke Park on Saturday night.
Such is the fall from their total dominance in Leinster that right now you’d almost fancy Meath or Louth to rule in the upcoming eastern championship series. Or to put it even more plainly Dublin is more Kildare than Kerry at this juncture.
Mixing a marriage with the remainder of the Dub greats from the golden era with a plethora of new lads trying to fill big boots, the Metropolitans are tripping themselves up more often than kicking on to glory in these important league games.
It’s now got to the point that having lost any points from this match they appeared to have already won, Dublin are in serious danger of relegation as they now must go to Galway and win if they are to have any chances of staying in the top flight for the coming season.
All of this preamble is in no measure meant to dilute the absolute brilliance and character of Kieran McGeeney’s Armagh, who showed why they won an All Ireland less than two years ago and why they can mix it and sometimes win against the big boys of Ulster in that jewel of a provincial championship.
Oisín Conaty is a special talent who showed us what he was made of in that Sam Maguire success story which ended in victory against Galway in ‘24. On Saturday night, he showed what a special talent he is by gaining possession and splitting the Dublin defense before firing home a sensational goal - and more than an even chance of staying in Division 1 when before the game, they looked like the other side that would accompany Monaghan through the trapdoor to Div 2 for ‘27 activity.
So hat’s off to the Orchard boys for turning a double-digit trailing margin into a two-point victory in what was only their second win of the campaign with one game - at home against the marauding Kerry to go on this Sunday.
Relegation, or the avoidance thereof, will be top of the agenda this week for both Brennan and McGeeney with both having mammoth tasks ahead this coming weekend.
With Con O’Callaghan out injured for this game, Dublin were without the sort of scoring talisman that both Conaty with 1-3 and Cian McConville, with a similar tally, could offer the Ulstermen.
Brennan will be keeping his fingers crossed that the Cuala wizard can play some part in Galway for they need an injection of inspiration, something Conaty provided with five minutes left on the clock with that wonder goal that could yet go into the archives as a score of the ‘26 season.
Coming at a crucial stage, it put a dagger in Dublin’s heart and without O’Callaghan, there was no stardust a la Dean Rock or Paul Mannion around to retrieve the situation.
Brennan too will look back in envy at what Armagh produced from the bench as the introduction of Oisín O'Neill and Conor Turbitt helped change the course of the play while both Tomás McCormack and Ross McQuillan accounted for six points between them.
It mattered little that both sides ended the game with 14 players following the dismissal of Dublin's Brian Howard and Armagh's Tiernan Kelly who saw red in the final quarter.
Initially in this game, Dublin looked accomplished and ran into an impressive 1-5 to 0-1 lead within 10 minutes of the throw-in, as they sought to build on their most recent win.
Niall Scully was rejuvenated in this period as he notched four points while Ross McGarry accounted for the Dublin goal after four minutes, much to the delight of the majority of the 23,500 fans in the stadium.
We got glimpses of what Armagh are capable of when they outscored Dublin by 1-3 to 0-01in a mid-first half period to cut the deficit to a mere three points.
Dublin seemed inspired by these purple patches from their opponents and finished the moiety like a train as Paddy Small, Seán Bugler and Luke Breathnach all found the range to make it a six-point game. They weren’t done yet and by the sounding of the short whistle, they had all struck again with Bugler’s two-pointer on the buzzer looking like a dagger to the heart.
Scully extended Dublin's lead by 1-16 to 1-6 on the turnover and when Bugler added another, it looked like lights out for the Ulster men.
If the final whistle sounded at this stage, Dublin would have been safe from relegation and Armagh would have been staring it straight in the face.
Then the game turned around and with madness, including red cards to Howard and Kelly all in the mix, it turned into a game of chase from the men in orange. Then when Conaty delivered to put them ahead, we wondered if Dublin had the magic of old in them to find something extra down the strait and pulled a late victory out of the hat.
With Armagh hungry for work, the losers found it hard to get their restarts to work and couldn’t engineer the goal they needed to get out of jail.
Armagh: B Hughes; P McGrane, A McKay, G Murphy; R McQuillan (0-3), T Kelly, J Óg Burns; C O'Neill (0-1f), B Crealey (0-1); T McCormack (0-3), J Duffy (0-2), G McCabe; C McConville (1-3, 0-2f), D McMullan, O Conaty (1-3) Subs: Oisín O'Neill (0-5, 0-3f, 1tpf) for C O'Neill h/t, P Burns for McKay 43-45, C Turbitt (0-3, 1tp) for Duffy 52, Burns for McKay 60, A Forker for McMullan 69.
Dublin: H O’Sullivan; E Murchan, N Doran, D Byrne; E Kennedy (0-2), B Howard, A Gavin; P Ó Cofaigh Byrne, C McMorrow; R McGarry (1-0), S Bugler (0-4, 1tp), N Scully (0-5, 0-2f); P Small (0-6, 1tp), K McGinnis (0-3), L Breathnach (0-40 Subs: S MacMahon for Doran 16, C Costello (0-1) for Breathnach 47, C Kilkenny for McGarry 50, Doran for MacMahon 52, L Smith for Byrne 65.
GAA RESULTS
FOOTBALL
Division 1
Roscommon 2-20 Donegal 0-20
Galway 1-20 Monaghan 2-9
Kerry 2-29 Mayo 0-19
Armagh 2-24 Dublin 1-25
FL Division 2
Cavan 2-20 Offaly 3-15
Louth 1-19 Derry 0-18
Cork 1-31 Kildare 2-19
Meath 3-24 Tyrone 2-22
FL Division 3
Wexford 1-23 Clare 2-17
Down 2-25 Sligo 0-21
Fermanagh 2-13 Laois 1-14
Westmeath 4-21 Limerick 3-8
FL Division 4
Antrim 4-18 Waterford 0-11
Leitrim 3-19 Longford 1-15
Wicklow 3-19 Tipperary 0-13
London 1-20 Carlow 0-18
Munster U20FC Phase 1 - Round 1
Clare 1-16 Tipperary 1-11
Waterford 4-11 Limerick 2-7
HURLING
Division 1A
Tipperary 2-24 Waterford 1-23
CAMOGIE
League Division 1A
Cork 2-8 Tipperary 1-11
Waterford 2-10 Kilkenny 0-14
Galway 1-13 Antrim 1-11
League Division 1B
Limerick 3-13 Wexford 1-11
Clare 3-18 Down 1-9
Dublin 2-16 Offaly 0-9
League Division 3A
Roscommon 1-9 Kildare 0-8
