Kildare booked their place in the Leinster GAA Senior Football Championship final for a second consecutive year after a 1-21 to 2-15 win over Westmeath at Croke Park on Sunday.
It was a hard fought victory for Kildare but an impressive 1-4 from Jimmy Hyland and 0-5 a piece from Darragh Kirwan and Ben McCormack sent their side into their second Leinster SFC final in as many years.
Despite the win, Kevin McStay is worried for Kildare ahead of their showdown with Dublin in a fortnights time and highlighted the Lilywhites' lack of contact and defensive struggles during the game against Westmeath.
GAA: McStay unconvinced by Kildare's defence
Speaking on The Sunday Game last night Kevin McStay said:
"It didn't have the sense of a real championship game, lovely football, lots of free scoring attacks and so on and the forward play in general was very good but there was a dramatic absence of contact, tackling or desire to stop runners or track."
"We were laughing up in the office, is Dr. Tony Holohan coaching these teams because the social distancing between them was shocking. They were like five metres and six and seven metres off the shooters, the end balls into the corner forwards they were picking it up five metres in front of their markers and no desire to track."
The former Roscommon GAA manager worries that if they play against Dublin in the same way they did in the semifinal, that Dublin will cruise to yet another Leinster title.
"If they stand off Dublin they will be decimated"
"If they stand off Dublin they will be decimated."
Kevin McStay highlighted the lack of intensity in Kildare's Leinster semi-final victory over Westmeath. #RTEGAA #SundayGame pic.twitter.com/7rqr5oTo0x— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) May 15, 2022
From a Dublin perspective, Dessie Farrell's side were impressive against a poor Meath side winning 1-27 to 1-14. The experienced Dean Rock and Ciaran Kilkenny combined for 1-13 in the semifinal, showing the country that the reigning Leinster champions still have the fire power to cause many sides trouble.
The win did have a sour end for the Dubs with full back Michael Fitzsimmons being sent off in the closing stages for a foul on Matthew Costello.
Dublin have seemed to put their poor league form behind them and will be more eager than ever to beat Kildare after losing to their neighbours earlier on in the year.
Ciaran Whelan on Dublin's win and problems in the Leinster SFC
The former Dublin midfielder felt the game was more about how poor Meath were, than how impressive Dublin were, however:
Speaking to The Sunday Game, the Dublin GAA great said:
"I thought Meath were awful today. I think if I was a Meath supporter tonight I'd be hugely disappointed with that performance."
"Meath today they were like a team that just turned up without any sort of plan and they were so open at the back, there was no intensity, they had no structure defensively, they were very poor going forward. I don't think you can really read too much into from a Dublin perspective, it was just all so easy."
"Dublin were 17 points up at one stage, it was like Dublin probably would have gotten better challenges in an A versus B game..... there's obvious problems in Meath and it looks like they need a change there."
The GAA Leinster Senior Football Championship final starts at 5pm on Saturday the 28th of May in what is a repeat of the 2021 final.
Dublin won the game in convincing fashion by a score line of 0-20 to 1-9 to seal an 11th provincial title in a row.
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