NO SUPRISES, no sensation and no sunshine on a relatively low key GAA championship day yesterday. Everything went to form on an afternoon when romance took second place to expediency.
For example, it was business as usual for the All Ireland champions, Dublin. They began the defence of their title at Navan. A 10 point win over a Westmeath side managed by one Barney Rock was deemed sufficient unto the day.
Westmeath, after a lively start, quickly faded out of contention and by the final quarter yesterday Dublin were playing well within themselves. For the All Ireland champions there were reasons to be cheerful. Joe McNally's first championship outing in five years brought him three points from play. Brian Stynes dominated from midfield and Dessie Farrell was superb at centre forward. Last year's rainmaker, Jason Sherlock made a brief and satisfactory appearance.
One cloud. Keith Barr, who scored one of the great football goals just on the precipice of half time to put the game beyond reach, was sent off after being harshly adjudged to have fouled Eddie Casey late in the game.
The opening game at Navan proved a suitable aperitif for an afternoon of mostly stodgy fare. Louth typically produce one fine performance each summer, usually when they are least expected to. Yesterday they submitted a below par effort to limp past Offaly and onwards to a quarter final clash with Dublin at Navan on June 30th.
Playing with an assortment of fast and accurate forwards, Louth seldom supplied them with the ball they needed and consequently made hard work out of translating Seamus O'Hanlon's midfield dominance into something a little more tangible. A creaky Offaly full back line always looked likely to leak goals, however, and three of them eventually fell Louth's way, two of them claimed by full forward Redmond O'Neill, the first a fortunate long range lob, the second an opportunist fist to the net. Much work to be done if they are to challenge Dublin.
Meanwhile, last year's beaten All Ireland finalists Tyrone had a most impressive run out in Omagh, beating a poor Fermanagh team by 12 points to advance to a keenly awaited semi final clash with Derry later this month.
It was Peter Canavan who once again gave Tyrone their cutting edge, in front of a crowd of 15,000. The current All Star scored 1-7 in total yesterday, with just three of those points coming from placed balls.
Fermanagh, who were weakened by several key absences, never mounted a serious challenge to a Tyrone side who looked to have matured since last summer. Sean McLaughlin's attacking instincts remain in tact, he scored two points yesterday from wing back.
Deja vu for Sligo also. For the second year running they glimpsed their own promise in holding Galway to a draw in the opening round and then flopped in the replay.
Yesterday at Tuam, Galway regrouped and reorganised and in a scintillating first half demoralised Sligo. With two championship outings under their belt already, the Connacht champions move confidently towards next week's provincial semi final with Leitrim.