Wexford And Dublin Draw In Dismal Semi-Final Matchup At Nowlan Park

Leinster SHC Semi-Final
Dublin 0-19
Wexford 2-13

By Dermot Kavanagh

Before a sparsely attended Nowlan Park on Saturday, Wexford and Dublin played a draw in a game that both sides appeared to be trying their best to lose.

Maybe the thoughts of meeting Kilkenny in the Final had given both sides notions of progressing through the qualifiers rather than the more direct route.

The first half of the game , in this observor's opinion, ranks as one of the worst games of Championship hurling of recent times.

Dublin were bad, but Wexford were worse. To Dublin's credit, however, they did at times look like a team in the strict sense of the word, while Wexford looked like a side that had been cobbled together on the way to the game.

Dublin had four points on the board before Wexford mounted a single attack.

Then, out of nothing, Wexford struck for two goals in the 10th and 12th minutes to take the lead. That Wexford were not to score again until the 35th minute gives ample testimony to their weak challenge.

Between those goals and half-time Dublin scored seven unanswered points to take a 0-11 to 2-01 lead in at the break.

The quality of the game improved considerably thereafter.

Points were scored freely with Dublin always holding the lead, usually by either a point or two. The main reason that Dublin was not out of sight of Wexford was their inability to take simple scoring opportunities. In that half Dublin had 11 wides to add to their nine wides of the first-half.

Wexford, to their credit, kept up the chase and drew level with normal time almost up. In injury time, O'Callaghan, the game's best player put Dublin in front from a free.

Just when it appeared that Dublin had made the final Wexford's Quigley leveled the score for the last time with a fine point from play.

Justice was done in the final act of the game when Wexford's Lyng failed to convert a long-range free.

Neither team deserved to grace a provincial final on the strength of this display. It is hoped that next Sunday's replay will see a marked improvement from both teams and that a game worthly of its status as a provincial semi-final will ensue.

Kilkenny 2-24 Offaly 0-12

After this one sided game at Portlaoise, Offaly manager, Joe Dooley remarked that realistically it was a game that his team had little or no chance of winning. That Offaly's manager had such a pessimistic view of his team's chances was, it appears, a view that most of his players seemed to share as this was a game that Kilkenny never really looked like losing.

In a reasonably competitive opening twenty minutes Offaly looked up to the standard required. With strong tackling and hard pulling Offally stopped Kilkenny from imposing themselves during those early phases.

By the twentieth minute Kilkenny's lead was 0-05 to 0-04. Thereafter Kilkenny went on a semi-scoring spree to take a lead of 1-09 to 0-06 in at half time.

Henry Shefflin announced his return to the game by outfielding two defenders to a high ball and after making some ground towards goal supplied Martin Comerford with a sublime pass for the opening goal of the game.

Within ten minutes of the restart Kilkenny had closed the door on any remote chance of an Offaly comeback by scoring six unanswered points.

It was now clear that the only issue to be settled was the issue of Kilkenny's winning margin.

In that second half Kilkenny outscored Offaly by 1-15 to 0-06 to simply freewheel into the final.