Dublin are sweating over the fitness of star forward Alan Brogan after beating arch rivals Meath in the Leinster football final at Croke Park.

Brogan was also gone for treatment by the time a late Meath goal almost promoted another epic Royal comeback but the Dubs held on for a three point win.

Afterwards, boss Pat Gilroy was more worried about Brogan’s groin injury than he was about the lacklustre second-half performance from the All-Ireland champions.

Gilroy revealed: “Alan said he had a bit of a niggle in it when he kicked a ball on Tuesday but he hadn’t felt anything since, but hopefully it’s not too bad.

“He will go for a scan on Monday and we are hopeful that he will be fit for the quarter-finals in a fortnight.”

Dublin had led by 10 points with 15 minutes to go but almost let Meath back into it when substitute Jamie Queeney netted in the 68th minute.

Gilroy added: “I think for 50 minutes we did well. We played some of our better football against a good team.

“I think Meath are a good team and I thought we played reasonably well without being outstanding.

“But the time to be outstanding is from August onwards and that’s the reality of it. Hopefully in two weeks’ time, a lot of things that nearly worked today will actually click.

“I thought we pushed on fairly well at the start of the second half and we made a lot of changes together and that disrupted our rhythm a bit.

“But lads were out on their feet - the physios were coming back saying these guys needed to be changed. So we made them fairly close together and that disrupted the team a good bit and we nearly suffered for it.”

Meath now face Laois in the All-Ireland qualifiers next weekend.
Down, beaten by Donegal in the Ulster final, will join them in the qualifiers.

Kerry were the other big winners of the weekend as they finally overcame Tyrone in Killarney on Saturday night.

In the other qualifiers Laois beat Leitrim, Kildare needed extra-time to see off Limerick and Tipperary ousted Antrim.