Dublin 1-27 Meath 1-14
Three red cards in the closing stages suggests blood and thunder at Croke Park between these old arch rivals.
In reality, it was anything but as effortless Dublin cruised into a 12th straight Leinster SFC decider with a facile victory over Meath.
It is a dozen years since the Royals beat the Blues in the championship and a changing of that guard looks as far away as ever despite Dublin's inconsistency over the past 12 months or so.
That three players saw red seems like nothing surprising in a meeting of these two, but it was no reflection on a tame affair that was done and dusted before the break.
Meath sub Jack Flynn was shown a straight red card by Derek O'Mahoney in the 69th minute for mindlessly crashing into Jonny Cooper, who was named in the Dublin team but came on as a second half sub.
Then Dublin's Mick Fitzsimons was shown a black card and then a red having been booked earlier as he conceded the penalty that allowed Joey Morris to score a penalty in injury time for the Royals - and, incidentally, to win the half on scores - before Morris himself was shown a straight red for an off the ball incident on Lee Gannon.
The Dubs took an 11 point lead into half-time when the neighbouring counties met at this same stage last year but a late rally by Meath reduced the deficit in the end to six.
By the break in this one, however, Dessie Farrell's charges were already 15 points ahead and seemingly motoring towards their heaviest defeat of the Royals in the modern era, the 3-21 to 0-9 victory in the 2020 Leinster semi-final.
It didn't quite work out that way, however, as Andy McEntee rang the changes at the break and Meath improved quite a bit in the second half, which will at least give them something to work upon going into the qualifiers - though the game as a contest was long, long over by then.
Dublin dispatched Wexford in the previous round in a fashion that suggested they had recovered some of their élan of old, and it was more of the same here with only two wides in a positive, attacking display - with the proviso that their opponents were again very poor for long stretches.
Meath barely laid a glove on their rivals - the first free of a once fearsome rivalry came in the 10th minute - and it was all fairly pedestrian stuff after Morris' goal chance for the underdogs flew past Evan Comerford's far post four minutes earlier.
That concern aside, the Dubs quickly established dominance through early scores for Tom Lahiff, Ciaran Kilkenny, Lorcan O'Dell - who came in for Cooper - and a Cormac Costello brace and Meath could provide no answer as the onslaught went on towards the break.
After scoring from a '45 and a mark, Dean Rock added a penalty to his tally when he beat Harry Hogan to his right after O'Callaghan was fouled by Eoin Harkin as he was about to pull the trigger.
McEntee made three changes at the break in a bid to get Meath going in the second half, putting on his son Shane, who is a few weeks back from a tour of duty with the Irish Army in Mali, and taking off his nephew James.
It was a much more even affair thereafter, though the feeling among the 38,081 attendance for the double-header with Kildare and Westmeath would surely have been that Dublin could have stretched clear to set a new record in the rivalry had they really wanted to.
Dublin: David O'Hanlon; Eoin Murchan, Mick Fitzsimons, Lee Gannon; John Small, Brian Howard (0-1), James McCarthy (0-2); Brian Fenton, Tom Lahiff (0-2); Seán Bugler (0-1), Lorcan O'Dell (0-2), Ciarán Kilkenny (0-5); Cormac Costello (0-3), Con O'Callaghan (0-2), Dean Rock 1-8 (1 pen, 5fs, 1 '45).
Subs: Jonny Cooper for Murchin (50), Niall Scully for O'Dell (56), Paddy Small (0-1, 1m) for O'Callaghan (56), Shane Clayton for Fenton (62), Brian O'Leary for Costello (67).
Meath: Harry Hogan; Robin Clarke, Conor McGill, Eoin Harkin; James McEntee, Donal Keogan (0-1), Cathal Hickey; Bryan Menton (0-3), Ronan Jones; Mathew Costello, Cillian O'Sullivan, Jack O'Connor (0-3, 2fs); Jordan Morris (1-3, 1 pen, 2fs), Thomas O'Reilly (0-1), Joey Wallace (0-1).
Subs: Cathal Hickey for J McEntee (ht), Shane Walsh for O'Reilly (ht), Shane McEntee (0-1) for Ryan (ht), Jack Flynn (0-1) for Jones (43), Bryan McMahon for O'Sullivan (59).
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
