Plenty of questions had been asked of Dublin after their draw with Roscommon, but they cruised to a 9-point victory against an underwhelming Kildare today, producing a vintage performance to show they're not out of the race yet.
For Glenn Ryan's Kildare side, the result leaves them in danger of missing out on the knockout phase of the Sam Maguire, following their draw away to Sligo on their first day out.
Ryan had emphasised the home comforts that Dublin enjoy when the sides met in April in the Leinster Championship. Today's fixture was Kildare's home fixture and was staged in Kilkenny as renovations to St Conleth's Park continue.
The Kildare boss was asked by Adrian Eames on RTÉ radio after the game for his thoughts on playing Dublin outside of Croke Park, and his comments on Dublin playing at Croke Park.
This wasn't an anti-Dublin thing in any regard. I'm sure they enjoyed getting out of Croke Park and coming down here. They certainly did today because we made things easy for them. At no stage were we being critical of Dublin. It's not their fault.
Kildare face a challenging fixture against Roscommon in two weeks time, knowing points difference could decide their place in the next round. Ryan sounded dismal when discussing Kildare's performance today.
"There's a lot of stuff we'd be disappointed about. There were a lot of areas in our game today that we were really disappointed with... We need to be having a good look at ourselves."
Dublin dominant in the first half
Dublin were the superior side in the first half as an inspired Colm Basquel performance drove them to a five point lead by half-time. Despite Kildare having some success pressing on Stephen Cluxton's famous short kick outs, Dublin's trusted players came up with all the answers to see Dublin take total control of the game. While Dublin left plenty of scores out there, the mere five-point lead was generous to a frankly poor Kildare side.
3 June 2023; Niall Scully of Dublin during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 2 match between Kildare and Dublin at UPMC Nowlan Park in Kilkenny. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Kildare came out in the second half chasing the game, but ultimately the mountain was too high for Kildare. Colm Basquel and Brian Fenton both found form that many had feared was lost, with the two Dubs inspiring score after score and leaving Kildare deprived of all possession as the second half dragged on.
While Dublin produced one of their most polished performances of the season, Kildare scored just five points in the second half and went over 23 minutes without a score in the second half. On the other hand, Dublin had 20 scores from play through ten different scorers in what was truly a game being played at two different levels.
