Things could have worked out a bit better for Kildare: not in the obvious sense that applies to any 19-point defeat but in the way the afternoon unfolded. True, the county’s minors had a fine win over Dublin but the seismic shock of the first match in this double-bill at Croke Park will have reminded Dublin that favourites need to be careful.

Any chance that Kildare might be liberated by a level of expectation that would have acclaimed any single-digit defeat a triumph began to fade once Dublin had straightened out after a slightly hesitant opening in which they shot a couple of early wides – one detected only after the intervention of Hawk-Eye ruled that Paul Flynn’s second-minute shot had not been an equaliser.

Kildare set up defensively by keeping numbers back in defence but were constantly caught on the break by the speed of Dublin’s counter-attacks and the accuracy of their kick passing.

As usual goals were the weapon of choice in undermining the opposition and the three that were scored in the first half effectively put the match to bed by the interval.

Demoralising

Goals are a demoralising statement of intent as far as underdogs are concerned. They create an immediate, further three-point gap and hint – or more accurately, threaten – that there’s more to come.

In the ninth minute, Dean Rock finished a move by planting the ball in the net. Two minutes later, Jack McCaffrey made one of his flying incisions that appear to open new dimensions of space in opposition defences.

His shot was saved by Mark Donnellan but in the pinball that followed, Bernard Brogan eventually rammed the loose ball into the net where it disobligingly cannoned off the head of Diarmuid Connolly, who had tumbled into the net during the attack.

Connolly was ultimately alright but the same couldn’t be said about Kildare. It was the same player who ghosted through the defence in the last minute of the first half to place the ball firmly in the net for a 3-10 to 0-6 half-time lead.

Having started at full forward, Connolly later rotated out to the 40 but was a handful wherever he went and crashed in a second-half penalty to make it a productive afternoon for himself. On the day, however, 2-3 didn’t even make him top scorer, as Brogan equalled the tally and with no wides.

Kildare manager Jason Ryan lamented afterwards that his team had made more attacking incursions than Dublin in the first half and as many in the second, but that’s only half the battle. Longford created nearly as many (three fewer) first-half chances as Dublin but lost by 27 points.

Kildare would lose by 19. They needed to do everything right in a match like this with so much of the evidence tilted against them, but they racked up eight first-half wides, at times exercising poor shot selection and generally failing to make enough of their opportunities to exert any sort of pressure on the champions.

Dublin tweaked their starting line-up to accommodate two heavyweights returning to the fray: Rory O'Carroll came in at full back and former footballer of the year Michael Darragh Macauley linked up with rookie centrefielder Brian Fenton, who put in another eye-catchingly energetic display.

The middle of the field was one area where Dublin didn’t have it all their own way and Kildare did well on Stephen Cluxton’s kick-outs, particularly for a period in the second half. Paul Cribbin was probably Kildare’s most effective player, tracking up and down the field, but the team lacked the sharpness of the winners in converting chances and defending.

Accurate

Ciarán Kilkenny put in a storming first half, getting on ball and making himself available all around the Kildare half of the field. He also chipped in four points from play with a great display of accurate shooting.

Dublin's defence was efficiently organised with Cian O'Sullivan playing sentry in front of the full-back line when Kildare had dropped back. The full backs were tight: O'Carroll never gave Alan Smith much room and Jonny Cooper was alert early on as demonstrated by a dispossession of Pádraig Fogarty.

Kildare managed a revival of sorts in the third quarter and with Dublin’s concentration levels dropping through over-elaboration, at times leading to turnovers, they outscored the champions by 0-5 to 0-1 after half-time.

Thwarted

Donnellan, who prevented an even worse scoreboard for Kildare, made a good save from Connolly in the 47th minute, having thwarted Brogan just after half-time, but the margin never got lower than nine.

Alan Brogan, having made an appearance off the bench, shot three points from play as Dublin stopped what might loosely be considered a rot.

The play also became surprisingly fractious given that levels of tension were hardly unbearable and 10 yellow cards were shown by referee David Coldrick.

The match was buckled beyond any hope of kudos for Kildare in the time that remained. Rock was upended by Donnellan in the 64th minute, causing the goalkeeper to be black-carded, and Connolly beat replacement Colin Heeney.

Four minutes later Bernard Brogan played a one-two with Paddy Andrews to palm in goal number five and the Dublin defence still put in an extended phase of vigilant marking to make Pádraig O’Neill work hard for Kildare’s final point.

DUBLIN: 1 Stephen Cluxton (capt); 4 Philip McMahon (0-1); 24 Rory O’Carroll, 2 Jonny Cooper, 9 Cian O’Sullivan, 6 John Small, 7Jack McCaffrey; 8 Brian Fenton, 22 Michael Darragh Macauley; 10 Paul Flynn; 11 Kevin McManamon, 12 Ciarán Kilkenny (0-4); 13 Dean Rock (1-4, points frees), 14 Diarmuid Connolly (2-3, one goal a penalty), 15 Bernard Brogan (2-3). Subs: 18 Alan Brogan (0-3) for McManamon (43 mins), 22 James McCarthy for Small (43 mins), 17 Paddy Andrews for Flynn (58 mins), 20 Michael Fitzsimons for O’Carroll , 25 Emmet Ó Conghaile for Fenton (63 mins), 5 Darren Daly for O’Sullivan (64 mins). KILDARE: 1 Mark Donnellan; 2 Ciarán Fitzpatrick, 3 Mick O’Grady, 4 Ollie Lyons; 5 Kevin Murnaghan, 6 Emmet Bolton (0-1), 7 Eoin Doyle; 8 Gary White, 9 Paul Cribbin (0-1); 10 Pádraig O’Neill (0-2), 11 Eoghan O’Flaherty (0-4, two frees), 12 Cathal McNally (0-1); 13 Eamonn Callaghan (capt), 14. Alan Smith (0-1), 15 Pádraig Fogarty (0-3, one 45). Subs: 17 David Hyland for Lyons (11 mins), 26 Niall Kelly (0-1) for Callaghan (46 mins), 22 Tommy Moolick for White (46 mins), 21 Hugh Lynch for McNally (55 mins), 16 Colin Heeney for Donnellan (64 mins, black card). Referee: David Coldrick (Meath).