Colm Basquel of Dublin celebrates scoring his side's 4th goal, in the 46th minute, during the Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Dublin and Tyrone at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile.
Allianz National Football League, Division 1, Round 7
DUBLIN 5-18 TYRONE 0-12
By Paul Keane at Croke Park
Dublin needed to win to be sure of qualifying for the Allianz Football League final and they certainly did that, demolishing Tyrone with a whopping five goals.
Dessie Farrell's All-Ireland title holders turned in their best performance of the campaign so far to record their fifth consecutive Division 1 win and, ultimately, a place in next weekend's final.
They will return to Croke Park for the showpiece against Derry and if they can match the level of ferocity and quality that they displayed here, they will take some beating.
All-Star Colm Basquel led the scoring siege with 2-3 while Lorcan O'Dell oozed quality too, registering 1-3 and playing a key role in two other goals.
The other majors were dispatched by Niall Scully and Cian Murphy on an afternoon when everything Dublin touched seemed to turn to gold.
When the game was a contest early on, Con O'Callaghan, Brian Fenton and Brian Howard played central roles as well and goalkeeper Evan Comerford was happy to keep back-to-back clean sheets.
A mixture of Tyrone's decision to rest several key players and injuries to others meant they weren't at full strength and were powerless to prevent Dublin running amok to lock down second position in the table.
Tyrone will return to duty in the provincial championship on April 21 though Dublin will hope to win a Division 1 final for the first time under Farrell's watch before they begin their Leinster campaign on April 14.
Dublin made two changes to their published lineup and three in total from the Round 6 win over Galway.
Eoin Murchan came into a defence missing John Small while O'Dell and Basquel were recalled in attack.
It was only Basquel's second start of the campaign and he looked like a player keen to make a big point ahead of the Championship.
The Ballyboden man had 1-3 racked up by half-time with his goal arriving in the 13th minute following excellent work by Fenton and O'Callaghan.
O'Callaghan played the final pass for Dublin's second goal too in first-half stoppage time. That one was finished off by Scully and with a 2-11 to 0-6 interval lead, the game was already as good as up for visiting Tyrone.
Ruairi Canavan and Cathal McShane operated at the point of Tyrone's attack but Canavan couldn't escape Eoin Murchan to get on the scoreboard until the 50th minute.
As for McShane, he went head to head with Daire Newcomebe in an intriguing battle and slipped his man for two first-half points.
The first was set up by Niall Morgan in what amounted to another terrific assist for a Tyrone score by the experienced netminder.
Truth be told, Tyrone were much the poorer for the decision to bench Darragh Canavan, fresh off his 1-6 tally against Monaghan, and Peter Harte.
Tyrone were clutching at straws for the most part though and struggled to stop a Dublin side that looked intent on going for the jugular when the opportunity presented itself.
Their clever use of the kick-pass, selfless support runs and sheer quality in front of the posts with half a dozen different first-half scorers allowed them to build up a huge lead.
Tyrone brought on Tarlach Quinn and Mattie Donnelly at half-time and Donnelly in particular brought energy and greater purpose to their attack.
But the Red Hands were still overwhelmed by the pace of Dublin's attack and the game was essentially put to bed in the third quarter with goals from Murphy, Basquel and O'Dell between the 46th and 50th minutes.
O'Dell had the final pass for the first two of those goals before getting on the end of a Basquel assist for Dublin's fifth goal.
It was poetry in motion, from Dublin's perspective at least, and they had the luxury of taking off key men like O'Callaghan, Fenton and Ciaran Kilkenny long before full-time.
Dublin scorers: Colm Basquel 2-3 (0-1 mark), Lorcan O'Dell 1-2, Con O'Callaghan 0-4 (0-1m, 0-1f), Niall Scully 1-0, Cian Murphy 1-0, Ross McGarry 0-3, Killian McGinnis 0-3, Paul Mannion 0-2, Sean MacMahon 0-1.
Tyrone scorers: Ruairi Canavan 0-4 (0-1f), Darren McCurry 0-2 (0-1f), Cathal McShane 0-2, Niall Morgan 0-2 (0-1f), Kieran McGeary 0-1, Lorcan McGarrity 0-1.
DUBLIN: Evan Comerford; Daire Newcombe, Eoin Murchan, Sean MacMahon; Brian Howard, Tom Lahiff, Cian Murphy; Brian Fenton, Killian McGinnis; Niall Scully, Lorcan O'Dell, Ross McGarry; Ciaran Kilkenny, Con O'Callaghan, Colm Basquel.
Subs: Theo Clancy for Newcombe 46, Paul Mannion (0-02) for O'Callaghan 47, Peadar O Cofaigh Byrne for Fenton 49, Brian O'Leary for Kilkenny 53, Cian O'Connor for Murchan 61, Senan Forker for Lahiff 67-f/t temp.
TYRONE: Niall Morgan; Conall Devlin, Nathan McCarron, Aidan Clarke; Ben Cullen, Kieran McGeary, Niall Devlin; Brian Kennedy, Aodhan Donaghy; Joe Oguz, Conor Cush, Lorcan McGarrity; Darren McCurry, Ruairi Canavan, Cathal McShane.
Subs: Tarlach Quinn for McCarron h/t, Mattie Donnelly for Cush h/t, Ciaran Daly for McShane 48, Sean O'Donnell for McGeary 52, Tiarnan Quinn for McCurry 54.
Ref: B Cassidy (Derry).
