Dublin Hammer Louth By Sixteen Points At Croke Park

Dublin sent out an ominous message to their championship rivals on Sunday when they hammered Louth 2-22 to 0-12 in the Leinster GAA Football Championship quarter-final at Croke Park.

The All-Ireland champions were always in complete control of proceedings at Headquarters, establishing an early lead and never looking back.

They led by six points after 34 minutes, and then two goals from Bernard Brogan, along with two other quick points before the break, helped them into a 2-11 to 0-3 half-time lead.

The match was effectively over, and the second half reflected this as both sides traded points with little gusto.

Darren Clarke managed 0-8 in total for Louth, all from set-pieces, while Bernard Brogan finished up with 2-5 in a sparkling display.

Although Dublin played well from the start, they weren't quite at their fluent best in the opening stages, and Clarke put Louth in front with an early free.

However, Stephen Cluxton responded with a 45', and then points from Bernard Brogan (2), Diarmuid Connolly (2) and Paul Flynn put Dublin 0-6 to 0-1 ahead after 18 minutes.

Clarke kept Louth in touch with a couple of frees but when Flynn launched over what was probably the best score of the game on 32 minutes, the gap was six points.

Then came the last first-half flurry which ended the Louth challenge. The first goal came after Dublin brilliantly blocked down a Louth attack, broke at pace and found Bernard Brogan, who finished very sweetly to the corner.

Points from Bryan Cullen and Kevin McManamon followed, before a second Brogan goal was bundled over in first-half injury time. This one lacked the grace of the first, and came after a few shots were blocked down, but it was worth the same amount of points and sent Dublin in 14 points ahead.

The second half, inevitably, became a somewhat stale affair. Dublin left Louth waiting before the start of the second half, with Pat Gilroy probably impressing upon his charges the importance of not letting up.

If that was what he said, it clearly worked as Dublin hit three quick points from Craig Dias, Alan Brogan and Bernard Brogan.

Louth still had only scored from frees, and surely shamed by an awareness of this, they picked up somewhat, with Clarke knocking over two quick frees before midfielder Ronan Carroll hit their first point from play.

The second-half became an effective practice game though, with both sides using their benches and sending on plenty of players to get some valuable game-time ahead of the rest of the summer.

McManamon, Dias, Denis Bastick and Connolly all hit points for Dublin in the final 15 minutes, but by now their intensity had obviously dropped, and Louth matched them, in scoring terms at least, for the final few minutes.

JP Rooney, Clarke, Adrian Reid and Ray Finnegan all pointed for Louth towards the end, but there was no escaping the reality which roared out from the scoreboard at the final whistle, and nobody will want to play Dublin having seen this.