Westmeath's second-half capitulation this afternoon was complete after Kevin McManamon netted Dublin's second goal of the game to ensure the Leinster title would stay in the capital.
Dublin were unbackable favourites heading into the final this afternoon, but could only manage a one-point lead at the interval.
After the break, points from Dean Rock, Bernard Brogan and Paddy Andrews made all the difference and Brogan's goal proved too much for Westmeath.
Speaking after the game, Westmeath boss Tom Cribbin lamented his sides performance after the break.
"It was a disaster of a second-half," he told Newstalk Sport's Oisin Langan. "We made a couple of mistakes at the start of the second half and gave them a few easy scores. It unsettled us. It gave them the confidence to keep driving at us and the element of surprise that we had at the start of the game wasn't there in the second-half.
"They were very physical around the break in the middle of the pitch and we just didn't cope with it well. We started thinking about the mistakes we made and we have a habit of doing that. Instead of driving on a bit, we dwelled on the missed chances."
The disappointment was clear at the end of today's game at Croke Park. Image: Tom Cribbin
Cribbin offered an honest assessment of where they fell down in the second period and how he reacted to falling so far behind.
"It's fairly obvious with most teams who are playing Dublin that you have to take every chance you get. They need every opportunity to go right for them and they didn't for us today. We created a couple of goal chances in the first half and we knew we needed to take them.
"In the second half a lot of the lads were getting tired and a lot of the lads I brought on were young lads. I wanted to give them the experience. It wasn't that anyone wasn't trying or giving their everything to the very end, it's just at that stage we weren't going to pull it back and I wanted to give some young lads the experience at Croke Park. Let them say they played in a Leinster final and it inspires them to get to that level to perform."
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