He can have the pick of them.
Cormac Costello, you are what some would call you, a little dancer.
Games are changed on decisions, seasons are defined on decisions.
The decision, for example, to throw Rob Hennelly in from the start probably cost Mayo. The decision to black card Lee Keegan – and rightly so – probably affected the beaten finalists too. But decisions on the line, at least the right ones, can win championships.
Jim Gavin hung his balls out there on Saturday evening for everyone to see.
He dropped former footballer of the year Bernard Brogan before the game. He dropped former footballer of the year Michael Darragh MacAuley before the game. He had choices to make and he made them with pure conviction.
It's not hard when you're Diarmuid Connolly https://t.co/nj33hnzHvU
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) October 1, 2016
When the game was in the melting pot, the football gods looked at the Dublin manager once more to see how he’d react.
He refused to blink. He took off Cian O’Sullivan. He took off Andrews and Mannion and he didn’t spare the man of the match of two weeks ago, John Small.
On the 56th minute though, he proved his worth with a substitution that won Dublin their 26th All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.
All-Ireland Final:
substitution –
@costyshnack in for @kevmc#COYBIB #DUBvMAYO @AIGIreland— Dublin GAA (@DubGAAOfficial) October 1, 2016
Cormac Costello came on and one point separated the sides in what was a truly thrilling All-Ireland final. One point.
So the Whitehall Colmcille took it from there.
He scored from play. He scored from play again. He scored from play again.
Three times, Costello sent the umpires searching for a white flag as he delivered his county’s last three scores of the game with the 14 normal time minutes he was given, in a championship final they ended up clinching by the minimum.
It was an inspired substitution and it was an inspired performance by a man who has just written himself into the annals of Dublin folklore.
He won’t have to buy one drink for himself tonight and, needless to say, he won’t have to do much work if he wants to find true love in Copper Face Jacks either.
Know this though, there’s a queue forming for Costello’s attention. A very unorderly queue mind you but at the very front of it is footballer of the year Jack McCaffrey who has vowed to fight anyone who gets in the way of him and his Cormac.
https://twitter.com/jackmcc93/status/782277020566876160
Who’d deny true love?
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