League debutants pushing Dublin competition

Dublin manager Ger Brennan praised some of the more experienced players in his panel after the comfortable Allianz Football League Division 1 success over Roscommon, but insists the injection of new faces has driven competition.

Coming into the round 5 clash at Dr Hyde Park, the men from the capital had just one win to their name and were in a real battle for survival.

Right from the off the Dubs were full of intent, with Brennan's side keeping the hosts, playing into the wind, scoreless for the opening 24 minutes.

A 13-point interval lead did not flatter the Brennan's side, who were clinical in front of posts and bucked their recent trend with five two-pointers in the opening 35 minutes, with Eoin Kennedy, Niall Scully, goalkeeper Hugh O'Sullivan, Seán Bugler and Paddy Small all raising orange flags.

"If you looked at the stats coming into the weekend, across the four divisions, we are probably up there in terms of two-point attempts, but also up there with the lowest return," Brennan told RTÉ Sport.

"Today a couple of things came off and that was pleasing."

Despite the aid of the breeze upon the resumption, the Rossies made very little headway into the deficit as Dublin controlled matters with the likes of Eoin Murchan, Brian Howard, Niall Scully, Seán Bugler and Ciarán Kilkenny starring for the visitors.

Brennan raised eyebrows after the league defeat to Mayo suggesting that the axe could fall on some serial winners as he puts a stamp on things, but he paid tribute to the experienced players after the professional display at the Hyde.

"The lads are super players, they have that experience under the belt. You can see the desire they still have, Ciarán Kilkenny was player of the match, Eoin Murchan deputised as captain for Con O’Callaghan."

The added positive for Brennan is that after casting the net wide since his appointment, he is building depth to the squad as they look to reclaim their Leinster crown this summer.

"We looked at 164 players all in, we have played 47 players in the league and have given 11 players their league debuts. That in itself is a positive. It keeps competition within the group going, keeps fellas on their toes."

For Roscommon it was something of a comedown after three wins on the spin, added to the nature of their comeback win over Galway last time out.

Despite the torrid opening 24 minutes, and a failure to eat into Dublin’s lead after the break, manager Mark Dowd wasn’t too downbeat after the contest.

"We need to go back and look at why it was a bad day at the office," he said. "If we’re able to go back and take our work-ons out of that, and we can improve on that the next day, I wouldn’t put it down as a bad day at the office."

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