Dublin 2-11 Westmeath 0-8:Paul Caffrey found himself surrounded by nearly a dozen reporters, all asking deep and searching questions, one of which tried to tout Dublin's next game against Wicklow. Sometimes it's useless to resist some of the crazy hyperbole surrounding the O'Byrne Cup.
It wasn't only that Caffrey's Dublin team had easily beaten Westmeath, 12 points clear at half-time and promptly destroying any level of excitement among the 3,382 attendance. It was more the fact that it was a mostly new-look Dublin team, with over half those starting being what the O'Byrne Cup likes to call "experiments".
Just like last Tuesday's win over UCD these included the highly promising forwards David O'Callaghan and Dermot Connolly, but also Derek Murray, Ger Brennan, Donncha Reilly and Niall O'Shea. O'Callaghan scored 1-1 and Connolly 0-3 and their place in the most testing matches to come looks assured.
Strangely, it was only when Dublin regulars such as Alan Brogan, Shane Ryan and Bryan Cullen were introduced that Dublin lost a little of their shape, allowing Westmeath to outscore them 0-6 to 0-3 in the second half. But Caffrey made it quite clear the Dublin team was evolving - exactly the way he wants it.
"Well it's early season, obviously," he said. "But I think you can see for yourself that there is going to be a lot more competition for jerseys this year. Some of the fringe players that have them at the moment are going to make it very difficult for us to take them back off them.
"That's what January is all about. It is still a learning process but there are an awful lot of honest displays going in from those fringe players, and that is what's most pleasing. But the wind was a huge factor for us in the first half. We got the goals as well and that made the gap even bigger. So we'll just train again this week and look forward to the trip down to Aughrim next Saturday."
Dublin are now just two games away from winning the competition - something they haven't done in a while - yet the big league showdown with Tyrone under the new bright lights in Croke Park is less than three weeks away.
"Well, you still can't read too much into form right now," he added. "It's just about other lads getting opportunities, and taking them, and putting pressure on the other lads on the panel. We'll look forward to the Tyrone game when it comes, but we've still a bit of work to do before that yet."
For Westmeath, the next three weeks will be important as they prepare for their opening Division One league game against Laois. They were simply way off Dublin's pace here, slow in both passing and tackling, with their defence particularly slack in rising to the challenge at hand.
Fergal Wilson and Dessie Dolan eventually found their scoring boots, but with John Connellan pulling a hamstring early on there was very little for the home crowd to cheer about.
Instead Dublin pulled clear with each early passage of play. O'Callaghan's goal arrived after 19 minutes, set up brilliantly by Conal Keaney from out the field.
Nine minutes later O'Callaghan turned provider and Derek Murray found the net with a deft flick. Connolly scored two points from play in the first half and midfielders Declan O'Mahony and Darren Magee also chipped in with fine scores. Dublin were good value for their 2-8 to 0-2 interval lead.
It was a forgettable day for Westmeath manager Tomás Ó Flaharta, yet although reduced to 14 men for the last 20 minutes after losing Donal O'Donoghue to a second yellow card, at least his charges kept battling.
"It was quite similar to our quarter-final game last August," he said, "in that Dublin dominated the first half, and did likewise today. We were experimenting with a few new backs and that, and like a lot of other counties, this is the time to do it.
"The league is just three weeks down the line, and this was a much more intense game than what we had last weekend.
"But Dublin are up there in top three or four teams in the country, and that's the level we have to play at. They look very sharp. And there are a lot of things for us to work on. Our work-rate. Our tackling. Our marking. Delivering ball into the full forward line. So there's a lot involved there."
DUBLIN: S Cluxton; P Griffin, N O'Shea, C Prenderville; C Goggins, B Cahill, G Brennan (0-2); D Magee (0-1), D O'Mahony (0-2); D Murray (1-0), D Lally, D Reilly; D O'Callaghan (1-1), C Keaney (0-2, one free), D Connolly (0-3, one free). Subs: D Henry for Griffin (half time), S Ryan for Magee, B Cullen for Connolly (both 48 mins), A Brogan for Keaney (57 mins), J Magee for O'Mahony (65 mins).
WESTMEATH: G Connaughton; A Rigney, J Keane, K Gavin; J Gaffey, M Ennis, D Heavin (0-1); D Duffy, P Bannon; F Wilson (0-4, three frees), M Flanagan, D Dolan (0-3, two frees); A Mangan, D Glennon, J Connellan. Subs: P Martin for Connellan (17 mins, inj), D O'Donoghue for Gavin (30 mins), J Farrell for Martin (44 mins), J Smyth for Mangan (51 mins), G Glennon for Rigney (66 mins).
Referee: M Deegan (Laois).
