OFFALY 2-25 DUBLIN 1-15
Dublin started their NHL Division 1B campaign on the back foot after a poor showing saw them comfortably beaten by Offaly in Croke Park on Saturday night.
Fielding a very inexperienced side Dublin were second best in terms of physicality and speed and accuracy of striking while the Faithful County enjoyed some moments of excellent hurling as well as scoring several glorious long-range points.
“It was very disappointing," said Dublin manager Pat Gilroy afterwards.
"We were outfought and outworked by Offaly, and they fully deserved their victory. We have to learn from that.
"We certainly didn’t have the intensity that we had intended to bring to that game. It’s just something that we have to improve.
“We never gave up, but things didn’t go our way. There was very little that we had intended to do today, that we did. We have to learn why that was the case, we have to look at ourselves and come up with the answers," added Pat.
“We just didn’t get into any intensity there. Our intensity was probably half of what we needed to bring to that game. Our movement on the ball was poor, and pretty much eveything we had set out to do, we didn’t do.
“We intended to go out and win this game, and the performance there wasn’t at the standard we would have expected.”
Offaly were 0-10 to 0-6 up in the 24th minute before Paul Winters gave Dublin hope with a clinically taken goal following very determined build up play by Shane Barrett and a free from Donal Burke brought the sides level.
However, Dublin's new hope was short-lived as Kevin Martin's men quickly regained control of the game to lead 0-16 to 1-8 at the break.
It could have been worse from a Dublin perspective as keeper Alan Nolan made to fine saves early in the half to stop Offaly goals.
Dublin restarted well with Eamonn Dillon firing over a fine point but Shane Dooley – on as a second half sub – replied with a free and then converted a penalty to see Offaly move seven points clear.
With just over 20 minute remaining Conal Keaney returned to the county colours when replacing Alan Moore but there was little he could do at that stage as Offaly ran out very comfortable winners.
SCORERS – Offaly: S Dooley 1-5 (1-0 pen, 0-5f), J Bergin 0-6 (0-4f, 0-1 '65'), L Langton 1-0, O Kelly (0-1 sideline), S Kinsella, C Egan 0-3 each, D Egan, D Currams 0-2 each, D Shortt 0-1. Dublin: D Burke 0-6 (0-5f), P Winters 1-1, A Moore 0-2, C Crummey, F Whitely, R Smith, N McMorrow, E Dillon, J Hetherton 0-1 each.
OFFALY: C Slevin; T Spain, S Gardiner, B Conneely; P Delaney, P Camon, D Shortt; D King, S Kinsella; J Bergin, C Egan, D Egan; O Kelly, C Mahon, D Currams. Subs: S Dooley for Bergin (ht), T Geraghty for Egan (53), L Langton for Mahon (63), D O’Toole for Connelly (71), D Doughan for Delaney (73)
DUBLIN: A Nolan; P Smyth, B O’Carroll, C Hendricken; S Barrett, C McBride, C Crummey; J McCaffrey, T Connolly; R Smith, F Whitely, D Burke; A Moore, P Winters, F Ó Riain Broin. Subs: E Dillon for Ó Riain Broin (26), N McMorrow for McCaffrey (43), C Keaney for Moore (47), J Hetherton for Winters (54), J Madden for Hendricken (66).
REF: P O’Dwyer (Carlow).