LEINSTER SEMI-FINAL: Dublin 0-18 Wexford 1-13:THIS ISN'T the promised land but for Dublin hurling it is a place from which the promised land is at least visible. The city hurlers qualified for their first provincial final since 1991 and the days of the great Lar Foley yesterday and, if facing up to Kilkenny in Croke Park seems like a meagre reward for such a breakthrough, they can at least enjoy the freedom of there being nothing expected of them and the knowledge that they will have another day out afterwards.
Many of the traumas which have befallen Dublin hurlers down the years have been at the hands of Wexford, a county Dublin have always seen as being beatable but who have managed to keep their noses in front of the metropolitans for the last eight championship meetings between the sides.
Yesterday as the second half unfolded and a series of small disasters befell Dublin it looked as if they would have to wait for yet another year for the breakthrough. Within a very short space of time in the last 10 minutes Dublin lost Kevin Flynn to a second yellow card, saw their best performer Alan McCrabbe twist his knee horribly in a harmless challenge and David Curtin miss a scoreable free. All this as Wexford had begun to breathe down their necks.
It shouldn’t have been that way. At one point late in the first half Dublin led by seven clear points having enjoyed a fluid and confident opening half hour. Dublin had lined out with the teenager David Treacy in the centre forward position after the late withdrawal of Liam Ryan who had been an injury worry anyway.
Ryan was replaced by Peter Kelly, the tall Lucan player, and if Kelly struggled to impact, manager Anthony Daly will have been pleased by the performance of his full-forward line with whom the ball stuck like velcro every time it was lobbed in.
One of the major factors going Daly’s way this season has been the availability of McCrabbe, the precocious forward-cum-midfielder. McCrabbe was nominally at corner forward yesterday but spent most of the afternoon sweeping up ball behind the two midfielders and his ability to work the hard ball around the middle of the park was critical.
McCrabbe contributed five balls to that opening period of dominance. But the highlight was perhaps an excellent score from Treacy after 12 minutes when he slung a ball quickly over the bar from the right wing.
That moment articulated the difference between Daly’s Dublin and most previous versions. Dublin don’t generally score points from that range or strike the ball that quickly or sweetly. The tradition has been to get the ball, put it on your stick and run with it until you hit trouble.
Dublin under Daly have desisted from overplaying the ball which hurt them in so many previous campaigns and McCrabbe, Shane Durkin and McCaffrey, all of whom worked the midfield shift, were exemplary in moving things along at speed.
Wexford throughout the first half looked like a side trying to remember what first division hurling felt like. They were slightly slow in reaction and their frank style of tackling brought them four yellow cards before the break.
Last year when the sides met Stephen Banville had shaken some change out of the Dubs before Tomás Brady was sent to ask him to desist. Yesterday Brady pocketed the big Wexford man and the option of the high ball towards the square evaporated accordingly.
To compensate, Dave Redmond in the corner had a couple of fine scores and the sheer workrate of Diarmuid Lyng kept Wexford alive when they had no right to be. A Lyng free seven minutes from the end of the half put the score at 0-11 to 0-10 for Dublin and it was with some relief that Daly registered David O’Callaghan’s first score of the game seconds later. O’Callaghan had been influential without scoring. Now he was both.
But Wexford were beginning to remember who they were and, unwilling to face manager Colm Bonnar at half-time in a bedraggled state, they strung together a run of three more points before the break.
The se cond half began with Dublin being forced firmly back against the ropes by Wexford’s substitutes. McCrabbe had started the half with a converted Dublin free but Stephen Doyle had a fine score and then Harry Kehoe followed with a point before a harmless-looking lob from Doyle again dropped between two Dublin defenders and Nicky Kirwan, fresh from the bench, got a stick to it to level the game.
The setbacks asked big questions of Dublin but in the response lay Daly’s best hope for the future. They scored five of the game’s next six points as their work rate adjusted itself to deal with the crisis and they caught a decent break when Lyng hit a close-range free against the post.
Then came that period of mayhem sparked by McCrabbe’s awkward tumble out at the sideline. Impressive substitute Simon Lambert seemed to have steadied things with a point but Lyng struck a fine point from play before adding two from placed balls to bring Wexford back to within a point going to endgame.
Dublin needed to at last stand up and be counted. David Curtin made a fine catch to break up one Wexford play. The Dublin full back line continued to give an epic performance and Lambert found space with a ball out on the right wing, twisted and turned and popped a score over the bar to stretch the lead to two points again. There it ended. And for Dublin there it began.
DUBLIN:1 G Maguire; 2 N Corcoran, 3 T Brady, 4 O Gough; 5 S Hiney, 6 J Boland, 7 M Carton; 8 J McCaffrey, 10 S Durkin (0-1); 26 P Kelly, 15 D Treacy (0-2), 12 K Flynn; 13 D O'Callaghan (0-2), 14 L Rushe (0-1), 9 A McCrabbe (0-10, nine frees). Subs:S Lambert (0-2) for Kelly (half-time), D Curtin for M Carton (48 mins), D Sweeney for McCrabbe (60 mins).
WEXFORD:1 D Fitzhenry; 2 M Travers, 3 P Roche, 4 D O'Connor, 5 M Jacob, 6 R Kehoe, 7 C Kenny; 8 D Lyng (0-7, five frees), 9 P Atkinson, 10 W Doran (0-1), 11 T Waters, 12 R Jacob, 13 D Redmond (0-2), 14 S Banville (0-1), 15 S Doyle (0-1). Subs:H Kehoe (0-1) for T Waters (22 mins), N Kirwan (1-0) for Atkinson (half-time), J Tonks for Kehoe (52 mins), PJ Nolan for S Banville (54 mins), E Martin for R Jacob (66 mins).
Referee:C McAllister (Cork).
