Donegal issue dose of reality to Meath in most one-sided semi-final in decades
Donegal will contest just their fourth ever All-Ireland final after administering a sobering dose of reality to Meath.
Robbie Brennan's side have been the story of the Championship, albeit spoiled somewhat by the scale of this defeat, as Donegal ran up 3-13 in the second half to better their 1-15 after half-time against Monaghan in the quarter-final.
It was like a throwback to the days when the Ulster and Connacht champions were often cannon fodder coming to Croke Park for an All-Ireland semi-final after winning their provincial title, unable to bridge the very obvious gap that existed to the best in Leinster and Munster in a 20-year period from the mid-70s to mid-90s.
In the end, Donegal's win was the biggest in a semi-final since Cork crushed Mayo, also by 20 points, back in 1993. There hasn't been a more comprehensive semi-final win since Kerry had 22 points to spare on Monaghan back in 1979.
But if those counties were ill-prepared for what they were facing having competed in a second rate provincial championship, Meath arrived with a burgeoning pedigree after beating Dublin, Kerry and Galway in this campaign.
It was a hitlist that would be sufficient to win an All-Ireland in most seasons, but the beatings that many felt Meath had coming to them before now all came at once here.
At no stage did they ever build sufficient momentum that led you to believe that they could upset Donegal in the way they did such other vaunted names already this year.
At 23 degrees come throw-in, the weather was not as stifling as the previous day and the wind was reasonably strong, favouring Meath in the first half. Given that backdrop, Meath needed to dictate the terms of engagement by building a reasonably hefty first half tally but they couldn't.
Backed by the elements, they relied heavily on two-point scores and had five such efforts by the 16th minute. Only two resulted in orange flags, from Eoghan Frayne and Ruairí Kinsella, and it felt that Meath were forcing it.
By half-time they had failed with two further shots from outside the arc and were barely hanging on against a Donegal side that wasn't particularly clinical at that stage of the game either.
But they got control of Meath's kickout for a period midway through the first half that allowed them to take control of the game, shooting four points without reply between the 25th and 30th minutes to go 0-11 to 0-6 in front.
This period of dominance may have been influenced by the fact that Meath had lost midfield talisman Bryan Menton on 20 minutes, as he suffered an injury while scrambling to collect a loose Jordan Morris handpass.
It was symptomatic of a frustrating afternoon for Morris, who had previously overcooked a handpass to Mathew Costello in the early minutes when a goal was on. But the chance went awry, and their confidence was further eroded by a series of subsequent misses amid ill-advised shooting choices.
All told, Donegal's ace man-marker Brendan McCole restricted Morris to a single point and the odd cameo, while Costello was held scoreless. Captain Frayne was the best of their forwards but without any of them fully firing, there was no pathway to victory for Meath.
At half-time they trailed by 0-13 to 0-8 and it might have been worse, with Michael Murphy rounding out the first half scoring with a point when the goal was at his mercy, albeit Seán Rafferty did well to get down on his boot and distract him somewhat.
Meath avoided the concession of a goal once again on the restart as Conor O'Donnell blazed over, but it came soon afterwards, with Caolán McGonagle galloping onto a break from a Shaun Patton kickout and passing to Oisín Gallen, who stepped inside the cover and finished smartly past Billy Hogan from a tight angle.
It put Donegal 1-14 to 0-10 in front and, although there was just under a half hour still to play and the new rules have taught us that seven points is far from insurmountable, the game was over there and then.
Ciarán Moore slotted a second goal in the 50th minute as Donegal swept upfield after his opposite number, Keith Curtis, had been turned over, and although Meath responded with the next two points, they were then hit with a barrage of 1-6 without reply as the Ulster champions came at them in waves.
O'Donnell got the third goal in the 58th minute after a lovely crossfield pass from Gallen, while captain Paddy McBrearty came off the bench and hit 0-3, even admonishing Michael Langan for taking a point late on when McBrearty was open for a goal.
But, at that stage, the gulf was so vast that Donegal's ruthlessness had given way to compassion.
DONEGAL: Shaun PATTON (0-1 '45') 7; Finbarr ROARTY 8, Caolan McCOLGAN 7, Brendan McCOLE 8; Ryan McHUGH (0-1) 8, Eoghan Ban GALLAGHER 7, Peadar MOGAN (0-1) 7; Hugh McFADDEN 7, Michael LANGAN (0-4) 8; Ciarán MOORE (1-1) 7, Ciarán THOMPSON (0-2) 7, Shane O'DONNELL (0-1) 7; Conor O'DONNELL (1-3) 8, Michael MURPHY (0-6, 0-1f, 1tpf) 7, Oisín GALLEN (1-2) 7.
Subs: Paddy McBrearty (0-3) for Murphy (45), Jason McGee for McFadden (50), Caolan McGonagle for McColgan (52), Daire Ó Baoill (0-1) for McHugh (55), Odhran McFadden-Ferry for Mogan (59).
MEATH: Billy HOGAN 7; Seán RAFFERTY ((0-1) 7, Séamus LAVIN 5, Ronan RYAN 6; Donal KEOGAN 6, Seán COFFEY 6, Ciarán Caulfield 6; Bryan MENTON 6, Adam O'NEILL 5; Mathew COSTELLO (0-1f) 6, Ruairí KINSELLA (0-3, 1tp) 7, Conor DUKE (0-1) 6; Jordan MORRIS (0-1) 6, Keith CURTIS (0-3) 6, Eoghan FRAYNE (0-5, 1tp, 0-1f) 7.
Subs: Conor Gray for Menton (21), Eoin Harkin for O'Neill (46), James McEntee for Lavin (51) Brian O'Halloran for Curtis (57), Shane Walsh for Kinsella (62).
REFEREE: Paul Faloon (Down).
QUOTE ME ON THAT
'I hope we have reawoken the love for Meath football. Today was disappointing but we have received unbelievable support from the Meath public this summer.'
Meath manager Robbie Brennan.
STAR MAN - Michael Langan (Donegal)
The outstanding midfielder on view, he finished with 0-4 but was central to a period of dominance in the middle third during which Donegal took control of the game in the firsy half.
AN OTHER - Bryan Menton (Meath)
Came out of retirement to enjoy a fine campaign for Meath, but had to retire early through injury as Donegal got on top at midfield thereafter. At 33, it remains to be seen if he'll be back again in 2026.
UP NEXT
DONEGAL: All-Ireland final v Kerry, July 27.
MEATH: Season ends.
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