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2nd July 2023
07:23pm BST
2 July 2023; John Small of Dublin in action against Aidan O'Shea of Mayo during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship quarter-final match between Dublin and Mayo at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile[/caption]
McCarthy is a tour-de-force and, fresh as his first run-out in Croke Park all those years ago, he galloped Mayo into the ground. Small is a ball of fire and he burned so many Mayo attacks to cinders.
The question was whether Dublin were a sleeping giant or a fading force. Ask Mayo fans and they'll you the giant has awoken.
Dessie Farrell's side were slow to get going in this All-Ireland quarter final, and with Ryan O'Donoghue and Tommy Conroy on song, they were under pressure for large parts of the first half. But they came to play in the second half and, rolling back the years to the heady days of Jim Gavin, they played Mayo off the field.
O'Donoghue and Conroy didn't get a sniff from there on in.
One of the lasting traits of the Jim Gavin days was that, out of the blue, a bolter would step up, step out and make the difference for Dublin. If Dessie Farrell was waiting for his man then Colm Basquel answered his prayers.
So long a bit-part player, the Ballyboden St Enda's player has made himself a part of the furniture this year but this Sunday was his break-out day. He had Padraig O'Hora in so much bother in the first half that, by the 32nd minute, O'Hora was heading for an early shower.
Basquel already had 1-1 to his name. He finished his day with 2-2 and the man-of-the-match award. Basquel kept Dublin alive in that first half but it wasn't a one-man-show, Cormac Costello was just as deadly with two brilliant early points.
Lee Keegan has experienced desolation at the hands of Dublin more than most and, speaking on The Sunday Game, he gave a fair take on the day. "There were similarities with 2019, in terms of that blitzkrieg in the third quarter. But that's Dublin, they're relentless, they don't let up, they want more and more and more. "From a Mayo point of view, it's been an inconsistent championship. League was League, but other teams caught up with them in the championship. They were second best in this game and that's the reality." If Keegan was to have one complaint, it was based around Mayo's early substitution of Aidan O'Shea. Having supplied plenty in the first half, Kevin McStay subbed the Breaffy man off on the three quarter hour mark. "I would challenge that Aidan O'Shea substitution," said Keegan, "because I thought he had a good first half and I thought it was a catch:22. I think it was the wrong call, a strange call because he could have made an impact with the diagonal balls that went in," added the Westport man. He may indeed have made a difference in the closing stages. But the difference wouldn't have been enough to bridge the gap, and the likelihood is that the result would have remained the same.Brilliant from Cormac Costello to set up Colm Basquel for his second goal ?#UpTheDubs pic.twitter.com/9HB5Y2feRR
— Dublin GAA (@DubGAAOfficial) July 2, 2023
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