The romance in Croke Park quickly made way for brutal pragmatism today as Kildare were brushed off with ease by Dublin to reach their fifth Leinster final in a row.

Westmeath's first Championship win over Meath might be the story of the day but their chances of avoiding a rout in next month's Leinster final look poor based on this ruthless performance by the reigning provincial champions.

Kildare now have just six days to dust themselves off for a second-round qualifier away to Offaly and it may just be too much for them to wipe this tanking from their memories.

Dublin led by 13 at the interval and never left second gear thereafter.

They didn't have to. Substitute Alan Brogan stuck over three points in that period but Dublin were otherwise content to absorb what Kildare threw at them before they motored further away from them in the last 10 minutes.

In the 64th minute, Diarmuid Connolly added a second goal from a penalty after Mark Donnellan was black carded for tripping Dean Rock. Not to be outdone, Bernard Brogan scored the second of his brace four minutes later.

Dublin took a little while to get going but when they did Kildare couldn't keep up with them. Ciaran Kilkenny kicked their opening two scores and added two more excellent scores in an accomplished first-half display.

After Dublin sized up their foes, they began to over-run Kildare and Dean Rock pounced for their first goal in the ninth minute when a Philly McMahon pass wasn't cut out properly.

A second goal came four minutes later, Bernard Brogan rifling a broken ball over the goal-line although in the process Connolly was struck in the head.

That made it 2-3 to 0-2 in Dublin's favour and before Kildare scores again, in the 26th minute, they had tallied 2-4 without reply.

A third goal came on the stroke of half-time when Connolly beat Donnellan. Making it 3-10 to 0-6 going into half-time, Dublin's job here was already done.

Scorers for Dublin: B Brogan, D Connolly (1-0 pen) (2-3 each); D Rock (1-4, 0-4 frees); C Kilkenny (0-4); A Brogan (0-3); P McMahon (0-1).

Scorers for Kildare: E O'Flaherty (0-4, 2 frees); P Fogarty (0-3, 1 45); P O'Neill (0-2); E Bolton, C McNally, P Cribbin, A Smith, N Kelly (0-1 each).

Subs for Dublin: J McCarthy for J Small (inj), A Brogan for K McManamon (both 43); M Fitzsimons for R O'Carroll, P Andrews for P Flynn (both 58); E Ó Conghaile for B Fenton (63); D Daly for C O'Sullivan (64).

Subs for Kildare: D Hyland for O Lyons (11); T Moolick for G White, N Kelly for E Callaghan (both 47); H Lynch for C McNally (55); C Heeney for M Donnellan (black, 63); F Dowling for E Bolton (66).

DUBLIN: S Cluxton; P McMahon, J Cooper, R O'Carroll; J Small, C O'Sullivan, J McCaffrey; B Fenton, MD Macauley; P Flynn, K McManamon, C Kilkenny; D Rock, D Connolly, B Brogan.

KILDARE: M Donnellan; O Lyons, M O'Grady, C Fitzpatrick; K Murnaghan, E Doyle, E Bolton; G White, P Cribbin; P O'Neill, E O'Flaherty, C McNally; A Smith, P Fogarty, E Callaghan.

Referee: D Coldrick (Meath)