Dublin cruise to victory in Cavan as All-Ireland SFC showdown with Mayo awaits

They meet their old muckers Mayo next at a yet-to-be-appointed venue in two weeks; a fixture with a lot of luggage but also a couple of essential ingredients for this slow-burning championship: jeopardy, uncertainty of outcome.

The winners skip the preliminary round and sail straight into the All-Ireland quarter-final. The loser will be forced to play three weekends on the spin to make the All-Ireland semi-final.

No, it’s not life or death, but it’s something at least.

The remaining duration of Cavan’s summer, meanwhile, will be decided in a straight shootout with Roscommon. That much was widely predicted before Dublin made the short spin North West this evening.

Some 9,028 made it to Breffni Park this evening. They took in the action and the sun in Breffni Park this evening but you couldn’t say the place was brimming with tension before or at any stage during the game.

Dublin will either win this year’s All-Ireland or come very close. Tonight in Breffni Park offered nothing empirical either way.

Equally predictable was the pattern of the game. The 2024 version of Dublin is almost feline in how it goes about its business. They seem to toy with their prey, allow them to stay alive just enough to move and try to get away.

We had 23 minutes of even-keeled football tonight in Breffni Park. So even that had the teams wore plain jerseys and balaclavas, there would have been nothing in that spell to discern which were the defending All-Ireland champions and which were the Division 2.

The moment of separation tonight came in the 24th minute. Once it did, the difference between the teams became abundantly apparent and obvious in almost every play.

Both teams struggled with their shooting early on but with Dublin playing into the wind and forced to work the ball closer, they caught a scent of goal while they were in there.

Brian Fenton batted a Cavan kick-out down to Seán Bugler, who quickly worked the ball to Cormac Costello – busy in that early passage as Dublin’s link man.

Costello jinked inside and applied the finish. If it had only been a matter of time, Cavan could have done with that time coming somewhere late in the second half.

As if to emphasise Dublin’s threat, Brian Fenton cannoned a shot off the crossbar just a minute later.

Their second, from Paddy Small, was straight off the training ground. Costello fed Con O’Callaghan who squared through a thicket of bodies at such pace, all Small had to do was make contact.

O’Callaghan was in the wars and left the pitch after just 46 minutes without having scored, but his pawprints were on 3-4 of Dublin’s scorers.

At 2-9 to 0-7, the game was over by half-time but just to be sure, Killian McGinnis it Dublin’s third goal within a minute of the restart.

Dessie Farrell ran his bench. Jack McCaffrey and Collie Basquel both got useful game time. In the 44th minute, Dublin found their fourth goal at the end of one of those lightening breaks they have come to master.

Moving with great menace and impressive numbers, they went through the hands, pulling Cavan out of position, until eventually the ball landed in Bugler’s.

He demonstrated admirable composure to steady before slotting home. From there, the game degenerated.

Dublin had done more than enough by the time Costello finished the rout with a penalty. Both teams had more important things to start thinking about.

Scorers – Dublin: Costello 2-5 (1-0 pen, 0-2f, 1 ’45), P Small 1-2, S Bugler 1-1, K McGinnis 1-0, B Fenton, C Basquel 0-3 each, P Mannion (2f) 0-2, N Scully 0-1. Cavan: O Brady 0-8 (5f), O Kiernan (Castlerahan), C Madden, J Smith, D Lovett, L Brady (’45) 0-1 each.

Dublin: S Cluxton; E Murchan, M Fitzsimons, D Newcombe; B Howard, J Small, S Bugler; B Fenton, K McGinnis; N Scully, C Costello, C Kilkenny; P Mannion, C O’Callaghan, P Small. Subs: J McCaffrey for Scully (43), C Basquel for O’Callaghan (46), T Clancy for Murchan (52), L O’Dell for J Small (54), P Ó Cofaigh Byrne for Fenton (57), G McEneaney for P Small (65).

Cavan: L Brady; C Reilly, B O’Connell, L Fortune; P Faulkner, M Carolan, O Kiernan (Denn),; C Brady, K Brady; O Kiernan (Castlerahan), C Madden, G Smith; R O’Neill, J Smith, O Brady. Subs: M Magee for C Reilly (h-t), P Meade for K Brady (h-t), T Madden for O Kiernan (Denn), R Brady for O Kiernan (Castlerahan), D Lovett for O’Neill (55).

Ref: P Neilan (Roscommon).