Dublin opened their Leinster MFC defence with a facile victory over Carlow in Dr Cullen Park last night.

Dublin 2-21
Carlow 0-4

Despite only retaining two of last year's talented team, the Leinster MFL-winning Metropolitans were in a different league to their opponents, cutting loose in the second half to record a 23-point win.

Sean Dempsey's Carlow charges got to half-time trailing by just six points, 0-1 to 0-7, but it all Dublin in the second half with Gavin Burke and Shane Cunningham both finding the net and Conor McHugh helping himself to 10 points, including six from play.

Full forward Andrew Beaton scored Carlow's only point from play two minutes into the second half as Dessie Farrell's men did as they pleased to book a quarter-final place on May 19. On this evidence, it will take a good team to beat them.

Dublin - L Molloy; S Mulvany, D Byrne, R McGowan; E Lowndes, C Mulally, E Fletcher; S Carthy (0-1), Stephen Cunningham; G Burke (1-3), Shane Cunningham (1-1), M MacDonnacha; C McHugh (0-10), D Campbell (0-1), N Scully (0-1). Subs: C Costello (0-3) for Mulvany, N Walsh (0-1) for Campbell, B Bentley for Fletcher, J Fitzgibbon for Stephen Cunningham, S Hickey for Shane Cunningham.

Carlow - A Murphy; C Kelly, D Hickey, S Webb; G Power, C Murphy, R O'Brien; J Dywer, C Fenlon; T Kenny, M Furey, S McGrath; D Walsh, A Beaton (0-3), C Blake (0-1). Subs: K Curran for Furey, A Byrne for Webb, L O'Gorman for Kelly, D Murphy for Blake.

Ref - A Nolan (Wicklow). Tweet

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