With the aid of a slight wind, Dublin got off to a blistering start with six unanswered points in the opening five minutes, two of them from Brendan Kenny. However, Darragh McCormack spurned a great goal chance at the other end in the third minute at the expense of an unconverted ‘65’.
The metropolitans led by 0-8 to 0-1 when Westmeath’s best player on the day, David O’Reilly scored a great goal under pressure in the 11th minute. However, Dublin continued to pick off some fine scores and they amassed 15 points from open play from 18 efforts in the first half, to lead by 0-15 to 1-6 at the interval.
The home team had the deficit slightly reduced to four points by the 36th minute but the visitors, managed by former Westmeath senior manager Shane O’Brien, always found scores much easier to come by than their opponents. They ended up with 12 different scorers, including subs Neil Hogan and Dylan Bannan who contributed five points between them.
They embellished their huge points total with a well-taken goal by Diarmaid Ó Dúlaing in added-time to end up very comfortable winners against a Westmeath team featuring four players who had played the previous day for the senior side in a Joe McDonagh Cup loss to Offaly.
Scorers – Dublin: D Ó Dúlaing 1-4 (0-3f), D Purcell, J Conroy 0-5 each, C O’Riain 0-4, N Hogan 0-3, D Bannan, B Kenny, L Garrigan 0-2 each, O Gaffney, C Rock, C Groarke, E Keys 0-1 each.
Westmeath: D O’Reilly 1-4, D Williams 0-7 (6f), B McCabe, D McCormack, P Clarke 0-1 each.
Dublin: K Hogan; C Groarke, D Lucey, C Kennedy; B Kenny, C Dolan, E Keys; C O’Riain, J Behan; O Gaffney, D Ó Dúlaing, D Purcell; L Garrigan, C Rock, J Conroy. Subs: C Newton for Rock (h-t), N Hogan for Kenny (h-t), D Bannan for Behan (52), F Murphy for Garrigan (52), C Donovan for Newton (inj., 52).
Westmeath: S Jackson; D Maloney, Jack Murtagh, C Gaffney; D Smith, B McCabe, C McKeogh; R Holding, I Smyth; D Williams, D McCormack, D O’Reilly; C Heffernan, P Murphy, P Clarke. Subs: S Ormsby for Heffernan (25), Josh Murtagh for Smyth (h-t), T Flynn for Maloney (58), C Geary for Smith (inj., 60), M Shaw for Jack Murtagh (60+4), J Fry for Josh Murtagh (blood, 60+9).
Ref: B Kearney (Kildare).
