STROLL FOR DUBS WHO EYE A BIGGER PRIZE
FORMER Dublin captain Colin Moran talked about his concerns for Dublin ahead of yesterday’s game and how he felt their golden era was coming to an end.
They would win the four-in-arow, he predicted, but could struggle in 2019 to match the hunger of previous seasons and, ultimately, to find a spark of inspiration.
Moran talked of how Dublin had morphed from inspirational to strategic in recent times and held up the game of chess in Omagh as exhibit A.
His one big hope for yesterday’s game was that they might find a bright spark up front to ignite the rest of their season, and perhaps the coming seasons.
Step forward Cormac Costello with nine points — six of them from play — suggesting he may finally be ready to graduate as the big-game player we all expected hime to become. It’s two years since Costello, still just 24, fired three points to see off Mayo in the 2016 All-Ireland final replay before being laid low by injuries.
Now he’s back on top form and hinting that he could be ready to be their inspiration again.
‘Cormac’s been showing that form for a good few months now,’ said manager Jim Gavin.
‘A result of all his hard work is the performance you saw, but we’ve been seeing that from him in the shadows.’
Or maybe it’s Eoghan O’Gara who will provide the cunning against Galway next weekend and beyond.
Nobody needs much background on the big Templeogue Synge Street man who has been popping up with memorable cameos for years.
Like Costello, he got his chance yesterday with top spot in the group (and the Galway date next Saturday) already assured and scored 2-2. His play is primal at times, pulling balls out of the sky and powering past men — the story of his second goal, and Dublin’s fourth. But it’s highly effective. Or what about Bernard Brogan? Remember him? Just 23 weeks after undergoing surgery to repair his cruciate knee ligament, Brogan (below) returned in what was a quite remarkable story. He was only on the field for four minutes as a late blood substitute for Mark Schutte though every second must have felt sweet given how hard he’s battled to get back. ‘To apply himself as dedicated and as diligently as he did over the last five-and-a-half months has been remarkable, but he’s got such a positive outlook on life,’ said Gavin. ‘From the day the injury happened he was very focused on getting back around this time of the year and it’s happened for him. He’s got a lot of support, obviously, from family and friends but it’s down to Bernard himself. ‘He’s put a lot of hard work in there and that hard work has paid off. It’s good to have him back.’ Brogan was always adamant he would return to play in the Championship and Gavin said he wasn’t taken aback by his swift return. ‘No, I’m not surprised, if you were talking to him over the last five months you’d realise it hasn’t been a surprise at all,’ said the four-time All-Ireland winning boss. ‘He’s been very focused on what he wants to get from himself and a great medical team in Dublin has given him great support over the last couple of months. No, I haven’t been surprised.’ Yet it appeared by Gavin’s use of subs that he wasn’t planning on introducing Brogan at all.
He brought on six players including fringe attackers Conor McHugh, Schutte and Paddy Small and only thrust Brogan into action as a blood sub late on.
Asked if he was tempted to hand Brogan 15 or 20 minutes, Gavin responded: ‘It’s part of the journey that he’s on. Obviously there’s a lot of players who have been performing for us really well in training as well.’
Dublin remain in a strong position heading into the last four with Kerry and Mayo nowhere to be seen. They will face a Galway side low on momentum after being well beaten by Monaghan and couldn’t really have asked for a better scenario from here on.
Other players that Gavin clearly has his eye on are Paul Flynn, scorer of 1-3 yesterday and Colm Basquel, who also started.
Flynn loves to torment Roscommon and hit their first goal in the 21st minute before playing in Michael Darragh Macauley for their second before the break.
Having blasted 1-6 against Roscommon in the league last year, he could have easily outdone that but hit three wides and had a goal chance saved.
Dublin still led 2-12 to 0-7 and stretched that gap thanks to O’Gara’s two second-half goals. By the 60th minute, Dublin had all six of their subs rolled in which perhaps explained why Roscommon finished with six of the game’s last eight points.
Gary Patterson and Donie Smith also hit second-half Roscommon goals as they achieved the largest tally scored against Dublin in this year’s Championship.
But it was another bad day generally with stand-in boss Ger Dowd —Kevin McStay was suspended — describing it as a ‘surreal’ experience.