BACK ON THE road but a much bigger hurdle awaits the Dublin hurlers next weekend.
A ten-point victory against Laois this evening had some good points, others not so good, but progress to round 2 of the qualifiers was achieved nonetheless.
After losing to Galway by 13 points, Dublin boss Ger Cunningham rejigged his defence and it worked.
Liam Rushe was back at centre back and looked far more at home in the position that earned him an Allstar.
For Mark Schutte’s first half point, Rushe was the provider with a killer diagonal ball into space.
Schutte stepped inside his marker on the covered stand touchline, made a better angle for himself and split the posts.
The benefit of playing Rushe at the back is two-fold. First and foremost, he fulfils his defensive duties well but having operated in attack, he knows the type of ball that forwards like.
Against Laois, Rushe played like a quarter-back but he was on the back foot for a spell in the first half when Laois, to their credit, recovered from seven points down to draw level.
What was encouraging from Dublin’s perspective was the fact that they reacted and pulled away again.
They never looked like conceding a goal either, in marked contrast to the Galway collapse.
At the other end, Schutte scored two early goals and turned provider for Conal Keaney’s major three minutes before half-time.
The scoring spread was decent for Dublin, with nine different players on target.
Eamon Dillon staked a claim for regular inclusion with four points from play and Shane Barrett was another to impress at left half back before his day ended early.
Shane Durkin came on with 18 minutes left as a temporary sub to replace Barrett, who shipped a knock to the head and would not return.
But Barrett and his opposite wing man Chris Crummey helped to forge a physically dominant half back line with Rushe.
Three big men in that pivotal line provided good protection for the inside trio of Niall Corcoran, Cian O’Callaghan and Paul Schutte, who finished with twisted blood after Galway’s Cathal Mannion.
Dublin’s full-back line was rarely exposed and while Laois picked off 14 points from play, the vast majority were long-range efforts.
There was just one moment, late in the game, when a Laois player looked like getting through for a straight run on goal.
Neil Foyle, with ball in hand, opted for a point when he could have went on further.
Defensively sound and more potent up front, this was much, much better from Dublin but a glaring statistic to emerge was 21 – the number of wides registered, 12 in the second half alone.
But scoring 4-17, or 21 scores, and adding that wides figure tots up to 42 opportunities of strikes at goal.
Over the course of 72 or 73 minutes, that’s a decent creation rate but long-range shooting from static positions and on the run is sure to feature in Dublin’s training sessions over the coming week.
A new-look midfield pairing of Johnny McCaffrey and Ryan O’Dwyer did fine. Two men who have been around the block, of course, but paired together they picked off a point each and got through plenty of work in the middle third.
The forward fit looked good, too. Dillon, who scored a late consolation goal against Galway, was the ace in the pack as Danny Sutcliffe, Keaney and Schutte sparkled sporadically.
There’s a really good team still available to Cunningham and the old adage that you learn more in defeat than victory seems to have applied in this case.
Cunningham recognised the need to restore Rushe to number 6 and Keaney’s switch from the half-back line to full-forward paid off. The manager was brave and bold in his selection, altering each line of his team.
Down the spine, Cian O’Callaghan, Rushe, McCaffrey, O’Dwyer, Dillon and Keaney did their stuff. As an exercise in getting the job done and moving on, this was generally good stuff for Dublin but the stakes get higher next Saturday against a much higher quality of opposition.
