And all the grief Lee Keegan was getting.
The Mayo man was criticised for throwing a GPS device at the ball during Dean Rock’s All-Ireland winning free kick but, listen, who wouldn’t do it?
We can say we don’t condone it, we can even pretend to be outraged but most competitive beings would do what it takes if it meant survival and if it was for the good of your county.
Cormac Costello is no different.
The hero of the 2016 final was a late, late sub on Sunday when he was thrown in after 73 minutes of time had been played.
He didn’t have much impact in open play but he was one of the Dublin forwards who helped completely spoil the game and get the champions over the line again in whatever way necessary.
He was bear-hugging Brendan Harrison for most of his involvement. After he was cautioned for doing just that, he carried on doing it.
You see, once Dublin got in front and they could see home, they were ruthless. They saw the rest of the game out whatever way they had to and that, as Jim McGuinness wrote in his Irish Times column, was the difference between the two counties.
‘When Mayo go to restart, four Dublin forwards are head-locking their men. Cormac Costello gets booked. Ciarán Kilkenny leaves the field on a black card, in no real hurry.’
It goes beyond that.
It seems that, just before Dean Rock too the free that would put the capital 1-17 to 1-16 ahead, Costello was interfering with the Mayo goalkeeper’s setup.
Footage from the ground shows the Whitehall native pick up David Clarke’s kicking cone and chuck it away before kicking two more at either post.
One of the tees technically shouldn’t be on the pitch in that moment but the other two are fine where they are.
It sparked further coming-togethers, it wasted more time and it disrupted David Clarke who would go on to put the kickout straight out of play when he had been having a flawless game up to that point.
Then, Mayo would never touch the ball again and they wouldn’t even get one chance to save their All-Ireland dream.
