Unlike his uncle Keith Barr, Dublin's wing back captain and wing back Barry Lyons had a valid reason for not scoring a goal from the penalty spot at the Canal End.

He was told to try for a point instead by team manager Paddy Canning and this he accomplished with ease. At the time, 22 minutes into the second half, Dublin were cruising 1-14 to 0-5 in the most lop-sided Leinster minor football final witnessed at Headquarters in decades.

"I came all the way up from the wing back position obviously intent on scoring a goal, but then I heard Paddy (Canning) shout over to me: 'take the point' and, you always do what the manager says." The penalty cameo was a luxury that Dublin could well afford. They played some excellent combined combination football which Offaly managed to match on very rare occasions with some impressive six and seven player moves.

Dublin enjoyed the bulk of possession, however, thanks to their stranglehold on midfield.

Dublin were supreme in finishing. All six forwards scored and none were more impressive than corner forwards David O'Callaghan and John Norton.

The difference in attacking strenghts strengths was blatantly obvious for when Offaly launched their infrequent attacks the final pass was rarely delivered to the intended target.

"We failed to play to our full potential today," said Offaly manager Declan McGovern ruefully. Canning agreed, but he was very pleased with his own team's performance. "We struggled into this final but produced the goods."

Strong, athletic and purposeful was how McGovern described the Dublin team. It seemed that it was not to be Offaly's day from as early as the first minute when corner forward Thomas Deehan took an intercept and with only Dublin goalkeeper Paul Copeland to beat blazed wide of the left post.

The only doubt about Dublin's ability to sustain their scoring rate came after they had opened with three smart points without reply, but their next score did not come until 13 minutes later. From this stage they atoned for lost ground by knocking over seven points on the trot to lead 0-10 to 0-3 at half time.

Dublin's defence was inspired by the solid work of Graham Dent, David Galvin, Brian Cullen and Barry Lyons.

In midfield, Martin Whelan and Declan O'Mahony were dominant and when Mark Taylor replaced Donal Farrell in the second half he became a seventh Dublin forward o score what was and scored a great goal. Taylor came in at the end of a well worked move in which Brian Cullen, Padraig Brennan and Niall McAuliffe figured.