Slick Dublin dispatch Meath with little fuss

After last year's blip, today's Dublin-Meath Leinster championship encounter was a continuation of what we've been used to.

Played out in front of a low murmur, this contest, in so far as it could be called one, was over long before half-time. Somehow, both these sides will be playing Division 2 football in 2023, though the similarities between don't stretch much further than that.

Following their off-colour season in 2021 and their relegation in the spring, the Dubs appear determined to put to bed any notion that the sun has set on their dynasty.

Here, they displayed all the slick efficiency of the peak Jim Gavin years, easily swatting aside a Meath side who were again painfully out of their depth. That the gap was only 13 points in the finish largely owed itself to the Dubs easing off the throttle well before the fourth quarter.

Flowing nicely from the start, the Dubs had clipped over five points from play without reply in the opening 10 minutes, Tom Lahiff, Ciaran Kilkenny, Lorcan O'Dell and Cormac Costello (a brace) notching scores.

Meath were floundering from early on. They might have been emboldened had Jordan Morris converted an early goal chance. At 0-02 to 0-00 down, the inside forward was found with a diagonal ball, rounded his marker, slid a low shot goalwards. It beat Evan Comerford but unfortunately for the underdogs, just slid the wrong side of the goalpost.

We were a long time waiting for the first Dublin wide and almost as long waiting for the first Meath point.

The underdogs did mount a bit of a gallop after Bryan Menton curled over their first point, Thomas O'Reilly subsequently stroking over a well-worked point to reduce the gap to 0-06 to 0-03 after 15 minutes.

That was Dublin's cue to move through the gears,