Kilkenny 3-16: C Carter 2-3, H Shefflin 0-6 (three frees), S Grehan 0-2, E Brennan 1-0, E Kennedy 0-2 (frees), DJ Carey 0-1, P Mullally 01, B McEvoy 0-1.
Dublin 0-10: T McGrane 0-4 (frees), S Duignan 0-2, D Russell 0-2, S Martin 01, M Fitzsimons 0-1.
Referee: M Wadding (Waterford).
Booked: Kilkenny - H Shefflin; Dublin - L Walsh, S Duignan. Sent off: none.
Yet another hour of painful home truths for Dublin as Kilkenny, black and ambered and untouchable as ever, destroyed them on a perfect summer day.
Too much cunning, too much pressure, too wide a gulf: the city side were forced to contemplate the same old shortfalls after a match which veered unalterably one way after Charlie Carter ghosted through after half an hour for his second goal.
"We had a bad day, no other word for it," sighed Dublin manager Michael O'Grady, who has given his last dressingroom talk to this side.
"On the day there was no contest and, well, we need more than a round-robin, we need two round robins or something else. Kilkenny are hot but I can't say how good they are because I dunno, I wasn't watching them.
"It was enough to watch the 15 blue shirts, see how they were doing. We had no score for most of the second half but finished off with three points, thanks be to God."
Kilkenny were hot, at least for a searing, telling period 15 minutes before the break when they simply oozed through the Dublin defence. Carter was at his most mischievous up front, hovering around and exploiting the half-breaks which came his way. With his team up 0-3 to 0-2 on 18 minutes, he hared after an Eamonn Kennedy clearance which DJ Carey flicked on and forced a scramble which saw the ball scoot into the net off John Finnegan.
Twelve minutes later, Carter read a divine handpass from Carey, looping over Dublin's last lines and he rattled his shot past Brendan McLoughlin. From the restart, Stephen Grehan floated a 65-metre point, leaving it at 2-9 to 0-6.
Both sides traded points before the break but after the refreshments, Kilkenny eased away in a lofty and serene manner. Eddie Brennan scorched through a porous defence just three minutes in and crashed Kilkenny's third goal and from there, they steadily chalked up the scores.
For Dublin's defence, the task was hopeless. They were faced with a torrent of attacks and were engulfed by the sheer force and the variety. Long balls from Kennedy, slashing runs from the busy Brian McEvoy, treacherous little cross balls from Henry Shefflin, sniping runs from Carter; the range and scope of artillery swamped them.
Liam Walsh, David Sweeney and Conor McCann defended stoutly for long periods, although the unit was weakened by the halftime retirement of Stephen Perkins. Silly errors stung them - Kilkenny must have collected four points off the most elementary Dublin mistakes and they might have conceded more had the game not drifted into a summery slumber for the last 20 minutes.
Dublin just couldn't get on the ball up front. Kennedy, Noel Hickey, Philly Larkin and Peter Barry were in crushing mood, stamping out Dublin's attacks and raining long ball down the throats of their beleaguered opposite numbers.
Frustrated and disheartened, things really fell apart after the break. Tomas McGrane, a bright spark of a corner forward with a lethal eye, whistled over a series of early wides. Wing back David Sweeney, venturing forward on a number of speculative runs, also screwed a reasonable chance wide after 43 minutes when the team were gasping for a score.
In the last 10 minutes, Derek McMullan rapped a low shot through traffic only to see Kilkenny goalkeeper James McGarry parry it. A goal then would not have been too much for the gods to grant. But when you're down, you're down. Dublin did fire a streak of late points but Kilkenny had all but discarded the hurleys at that stage. It was as easy a stroll as they have had for a while.
"Well, it was a good win. Disappointing for Dublin, I know, they had good preparation this year but I suppose the few goals in the first half finished the game early on," said Kilkenny manager Brian Cody. They were happy to be in the Leinster final. "We have a championship match under our belt now. It turned out to be easier than I thought it would be." Afterwards, the Dublin squad heard O'Grady deliver his parting words and then peeled out, still no closer to the mystery after another season of striving.
"I said to them inside, `listen lads, you are going to have lots of painful days before the big day comes. When it will come, I don't know, I hope it will sometime'.
"But they have two choices now. They can give it up or they can play more hurling. My time is up. The lads are entitled to a new voice at this stage. Love to go out on a high note, but we were badly caught. But there are some good young hurlers in there and with a new person on the sideline I believe that next year could be a good year."
And down the corridor he walked, a good man with no more to give.
