Cormac Costello cashes in as Dublin open league in familiar style

The Whitehall Colmcille forward took three penalties and finished with a haul of 1-13 against Anthony Cunningham's Roscommon side on Sunday afternoon

Dublin's Cormac Costello scores a point from a late penalty at Dr Hyde Park. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Roscommon 0-16 Dublin 1-22

Cormac Costello's day. The Whitehall Colmcille foward claimed 1-13 as Dublin swatted aside Roscommon in their league opener and yet mere statistics don’t do justice to the man’s afternoon.

Costello claimed a full house of scores with a goal from a penalty, three points from play, another from a mark, and the rest emanating from dead balls. That included one sent over the bar from another penalty, while a third spot-kick smacked back off a post.

Two of Dublin’s penalties were sourced from the new rule which punishes sides for depriving teams of a goalscoring opportunity by awarding a penalty anywhere inside the 20m-line and sending the culprit to the bin for ten minutes.

Under those circumstances, a nine-point loss for the hosts wasn’t all that bad.

Dublin used the first day out to give some game-time to fresh faces.

Michael Shiel, in goal, and Sean McMahon started in what were their respective league debuts while plenty of use was made of a bench from where everyone from Peadar O Cofaigh Byrne to Philly McMahon made appearances.

This one seemed set to follow the trail of so many games Dublin have played this past six or seven years with Roscommon sticking to them point-for-point early on before, slowly but surely, finding the gap widening. It’s so subtle it's almost imperceptible.

Anthony Cunningham’s men didn’t do a whole lot wrong in that first half. True, they maybe gave away a few too many frees all too easily, but it's not like they fell apart. That’s just what Dublin do, although they failed to twist the knife completely until the last quarter.

Roscommon held in there through the initial storm but even that required a necklace of fine points shot from distance throughout the first half and they did pretty well to get to the interval only six points adrift of the garlanded visitors.

They could, though, rue the spurned opportunity just ten minutes in when Diarmuid Murtagh somehow palmed a ball high against the post when Cathal Cregg had appeared to play him in for a straightforward goal.

Coincidence or not, it was at this very point that Dublin kicked on a gear. They would outscore Roscommon by 1-5 to 0-2 over the next half-dozen minutes, the goal coming from a Costello penalty after Brian Stack brought Paddy Small down.

Stack received a black card for his transgression which occurred inside the 20m area but outside the parallelogram. A case of double jeopardy under the new rules and Costello wasn’t in the mood to pass up such an opportunity. Yet.

The All-Ireland champs had a golden opportunity to turn the screw still further shortly after the restart when Roscommon full-back Fergal Lennon dragged Dara Mullin down on the end line and once again brought the wrath of the new rule down on his team.

Whether it was a genuine goal-scoring opportunity was debatable but, though the foul was recorded well away from the penalty area, it still incurred another black card and a spot-kick which Costello this time aimed at an upright.

The miss summed up what was a lacklustre third quarter for the illustrious visitors but Roscommon never looked like taking advantage and the closest they would get was four points on two occasions before order was restored and the scoreboard buffered.

Injury-time had already kicked in by the time Costello stood up to his last peno which this time was ballooned over the bar. Did he mean it? Didn’t matter. The job was already done.

Scorers for Roscommon: C Murtagh (0-6, 0-2 frees); D Smith (0-6, 0-5 frees); N Daly, E Nolan, E Smith and D Murtagh (all 0-1).

Scorers for Dublin: C Costello (1-13, 1-1 penalties, 0-1 mark, 0-8 frees); C Kilkenny (0-4, 0-1 mark); P Small (0-2); T Lahiff, B Fenton, D Mullin (all 0-1).

Roscommon: C Lavin; D Murray, G Patterson, F Lennon; C Hussey, N Daly, B Stack; E Nolan, S Killoran; N Kilroy, C Cregg, E Smith; D Smith, D Murtagh, C Murtagh.

Subs: C Devaney for Kilroy (HT); C McKeon for Cregg (40); C Daly for Stack (44); D Neary for Lennon and C Cox for D Murtagh (both 50); H Darcy for Killoran (56); C Daly for McKeon (66).

Dublin: M Shields; S McMahon, D Byrne, E Murchan; J McCarthy, J Small, R McDaid; B Fenton, T Lahiff; N Scully, C O’Callaghan, D Mullin; P Small, C Costello, C Kilkenny.

Subs: M Fitzsimons for McMahon and C Basquel for Mullin (both 50); C McHugh for Small and P O Cofaigh Byrne for Lahiff (both 54); R Basquel for O’Callaghan and E Lowndes for McCarthy (both 64); P McMahon for Murchan (66).

Referee: D O’Mahony (Tipperary).