Mannion in sparkling form as Dublin cruise to victory over Meath

• Published date: 15 April 2024
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

“The Leinster Championship is a shambles,” said Colm O’Rourke afterwards. “But that’s not Dublin’s fault. I suppose it’s the fault of teams like Meath who haven’t been competitive for a long, long time. To me, anyway, the obvious thing is the Leinster Championship should be played before the league. It’s absolutely ridiculous that teams in the league are waiting, waiting, waiting and don’t know what competition they are going to be playing in or when they will be playing

“If the provincial championships were over, everyone would know exactly before they start the league, particularly those teams in the second and third division, what they had to do to ensure they play in the Sam Maguire. It’s very unsatisfactory, the present system.”

All of which is fine and true and old, old news. In the here and now, Meath gave it plenty but were outclassed by a Dublin team that wasn’t firing on anything like the form they showed in the league final a fortnight ago. As O’Rourke pointed out, Dublin had players who have more All-Ireland medals than some of his squad have championship appearances. The longer this went on, the more it told.

Still, they came out and had a go in the early exchanges. Far too often over the current reign of terror, they’ve come to Croke Park and been beaten before the anthem ended. Here, they shied away from nothing and pressed up on Dublin without worrying about the consequences. It worked too – they won six out of 10 of Stephen Cluxton’s first-half kick-outs.

Shanked it short Cluxton was appearing for his first game of 2024 and looked every bit of it. Apart from the rust in his kick-outs, he came up for one first-half free and shanked it short and wide. It’s 23 years since he made his championship debut – nobody has done more to earn the leeway of a creaking first day back.

As ever, Dublin had plenty of back-up to see him through it. Paul Mannion was in sparkling form at corner forward, landing one trademark skyscraper from out on the right and chipping in with his quota of frees as well. Mick Fitzsimons was making his first appearance of the year too and he was in full octopus mode every time Jordan Morris got on the ball. Colm Basquel was snappy and clinical in attack.

But the crucial moment of the first half was the Dublin goal. Meath had every reason to feel aggrieved about it – Bugler should have been called back for overcarrying as he bumped and dodgemed through to bury the ball into the roof of the Hill 16 net on 19 minutes.

Bugler was...