Dublin 1-15 Mayo 1-14
Trust the longest season to find a new way of surprising us, right when we figured we were all out of shock. The two sides met picture card with picture card all the way until Dublin found an ace that Mayo couldn't match. After a combined 165 minutes of football, they were finally separated from by the inspired injection of Cormac Costello off the bench for the champions.
Ultimately, that was the difference. Cut through the noise, scrape out the detritus of duelling black cards and paranoid hashtags and what you’re left with is pretty simple. Mayo don’t have a Cormac Costello humming along dutifully in the chorus, waiting for his call. If they had he’d be out front, doing the needful in the spotlight.
Still. Of all the rabbits to pull from all the hats. You’d have gone round a fair few houses pre-game by the time you found someone coming up with Costello as the match-winner here.
Apart from a few stoppage-time minutes at the end of the semi-final, Costello hadn’t featured since the Laois game in June. For his last score in a Dublin jersey, you had to go back to the league final against Kerry in April.
Yet here he was, a 56th-minute substitute for Kevin McManamon, zipping off the bench to kick three points from three chances. He was the only Dublin player to score in the closing 20 minutes when the need was greatest and the temperature highest.
All Mayo had in response were frees from Cillian O’Connor and eventually they ran out of road in the cruellest fashion, O’Connor pulling a 76th-minute effort wide after a day of near-perfection. Had it gone over, we’d have been headed for extra-time.
As it is, Dublin are back-to-back champions, the first team to manage that feat in a decade, the first Dublin team to do it for 40 years. They are 29 games unbeaten in league and championship – by the time we pull out the woollies next February, it will be a month shy of two years since they last trudged off a pitch beaten. With four All-Irelands in six years, they are the team of a decade that still has plenty of road left in it.
For Jim Gavin, this was a particularly laudable triumph. He dropped two former footballers of the year in Bernard Brogan and Michael Darragh Macauley and was rewarded with crucial contributions from both off the bench. He got a stellar night's work from another of his late selections, Mick Fitzsimons turning on one of the great defensive displays in an All-Ireland final. He moved Paul Flynn to midfield, where the once serial All Star located a measure of his best form after a fruitless summer of chasing around after it.
Brutally unforgiving
If all Gavin's calls went the way he hoped, Stephen Rochford had the misfortune of seeing his biggest one blow up in his face. Swapping in Robbie Hennelly for David Clarke looked a ballsy shout an hour before throw-in, albeit an unnecessary one.
Hennelly went on to have a brutally unforgiving afternoon, two incidents in particular either side of half-time costing Mayo badly.
The first saw Lee Keegan pull down Diarmuid Connolly in an effort to retrieve the situation after a kick-out was intercepted by Dean Rock. Keegan – already with a goal to his name and Connolly reduced to a solitary (incredible) point – walked on a black card. With Donie Vaughan having to be replaced at the break after his head collided with James McCarthy's hip, it meant Mayo were facing the second half with their two best players from the drawn game sitting in the stand.
The score stood at 0-10 to 1-6 at that point, a reasonable reflection of what had been a pulsating first half. Dublin were four points up after seven minutes, Mayo had reeled them in by the 13th. Rock’s kicking was faultless – he had eight points to his name by the break, two of them from play.
But Mayo had their demon-slayers too. The Seamus O’Shea who gave away ball after ball in the drawn game was spraying passes into the forward line like a grizzle-bearded Brian McGuigan. One such dinked affair on 18 minutes hit his brother Aidan in perfectly full stride for the younger O’Shea to round Cian O’Sullivan and put Keegan away for a stunning goal. Cillian O’Connor matched Rock tick for tack when called upon too.
And so we headed into the second half with just a point between them. And Mayo being unbreakable, unquenchable Mayo, they shrugged off the loss of Keegan and Vaughan to take the lead themselves just two minutes after the break with a lovely Diarmuid O’Connor point into the Hill.
Accident prone
But then, Mayo being accident-prone, stupefying Mayo, they gave away yet another totally avoidable goal at yet another crucial juncture. With 40 minutes gone, Flynn dropped a point attempt short on the edge of the Mayo square and Hennelly came to collect under no obvious pressure. But the ball slipped through his fingers and with the otherwise excellent Patrick Durcan caught unawares, Paddy Andrews was able to get on the loose ball.
Hennelly flailed in desperation, Andrews went to ground, Maurice Deegan called penalty and sent Hennelly to the stand on a black card. Clarke’s first job was to pick Connolly’s penalty out of the net and just like that, Dublin had a lead they would never give up.
Mayo, of course, came again. Durcan landed a magnificent score from distance, Kevin McLoughlin jinked inside Philly McMahon to remind everyone that he’s a very handy forward in real life. With 56 minutes on the clock, Dublin led 1-12 to 1-11.
Enter Costello. Some brilliant Dublin defending led to a break-out for him to score with his first touch, Philly McMahon and Ciaran Kilkenny combined to put him away for his second.
Mayo clung on but O’Connor’s frees weren’t enough. With his last, forlorn effort curling wide, their grip slipped and Dublin escaped their clutches.
DUBLIN: S Cluxton; P McMahon, J Cooper, M Fitzsimons; J McCarthy, C O'Sullivan, J Small; B Fenton, P Flynn; P Andrews, K McManamon (0-1), C Kilkenny; D Rock (0-9, seven frees), D Connolly (1-1, 1-0 pen), P Mannion.
Subs: D Byrne for Cooper (black card, 19 mins); B Brogan (0-1) for Andrews (46 mins), MD Macauley for Mannion (51 mins), C Costello (0-3) for McManamon (56 mins), E Lowndes for Small (59 mins), D Daly for O'Sullivan (71 mins).
MAYO: R Hennelly; B Harrison, D Vaughan, K Higgins; L Keegan (1-0), C Boyle, P Durcan (0-2); S O'Shea, T Parsons; K McLoughlin (0-1), A O'Shea, D O'Connor (0-1); J Doherty, A Moran (0-1), C O'Connor (0-9, nine frees).
Subs: S Coen for Keegan (black card, 35 mins), C O'Shea for Vaughan (h-t), D Clarke for Hennelly (black card, 41 mins), B Moran for A Moran (54 mins), A Dillon for Doherty (59 mins).
Referee: M Deegan (Laois).
