Dublin eye a delicious hat-trick of vengeance

KILLER SCORE: Colm Basquel of Dublin palms the ball past Mayo goalkeeper Colm Reape and Sam Callinan to the net for his and Dublin's second goal. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

All-Ireland SFC quarter-final

Dublin 2-17 Mayo 0-11

“Anything you can do, we can do better” seemed to be the message from Dublin to Kerry on Sunday afternoon as they also took out another Division 1 team only with slightly more zeal.

A record-breaking victory against Mayo that had more than shades of their 2019 semi-final win over a Mayo side drained by their qualifier and Super 8 efforts, they will hope it’s the first in a three-part avenging series of games this month.

As Kerry did the day before, a 2021 semi-final disappointment was consigned to history. Next up, an All-Ireland semi-final date with a Monaghan team who dumped Dublin into Division 1 last year. Negotiate that and they may well have the prospect of hurting Kerry for last year’s semi-final defeat.

For those in the capital, it's a menu that’s tantalising to fantasise about and on the back of this second-half butchering of Mayo pretty believable too. Hitting them for an unanswered 1-7 across half-time, 1-4 inside the first nine minutes of the second half, they had the luxury of looking forward to a semi-final long before the end.

For Mayo manager Kevin McStay, that statistic and just three second-half points, two of them from play, should be unacceptable but he wasn’t steering from the upbeat complexion he has exhibited after every game in this championship, one that provided wins and defeats in equal measure.

“It’s our first year together as a group and we are just finding each other out and figuring each other out,” he maintained. “I’ve learned a lot about the boys and I’m sure they’ve tried to figure us out a bit as well, but overall I’m not broken or anything over this defeat.”

While McStay’s team’s response to Colm Basquel’s 18th-minute goal was strong, his second six minutes into the second half sent Dublin seven points up and really out of sight. Coming into the game off 11 consecutive SFC clean sheets, Stephen Cluxton added another. Eoghan McLaughlin came closest to ending that run but struck a breaking ball off the post and with eight points between them Cluxton parried away a low-percentage Diarmuid O’Connor effort in the 57th minute.

In the second half, it was clear Mayo were out of gas but the scores were tit-for-tat in the opening quarter as Basquel and Tommy Conroy were enjoying themselves at either end. That flow was broken in the 18th minute when Basquel caught a David Byrne punt, turned and slid the ball home.

Mayo’s reaction was instant and impressive. Conroy scored in the next possession seconds later and three further scores came in the following four minutes. O’Donoghue was showing early and often for ball and sent over two of them.

Cormac Costello’s first and second frees followed and Dublin were back on level terms. In between, Jordan Flynn was whistled for lifting the ball with his knees prior to blasting a strike to the net, although replays suggested he didn’t do it from the ground as per the technical foul’s definition.

Another goal chance came at the other end when Niall Scully palmed a ball against the post but James McCarthy was on hand to make the attack count and hook over a point to give Dublin a marginal edge at the interval, 1-6 to 0-8.

Joking that he told his men to “giddy up” at half-time, Dessie Farrell knew there was more to come from them. “I think we just knew we hadn’t performed that well. We were happy to be a point up at half-time not having gone great and knew there was much more in us. It was just a case of trying to liberate ourselves a little bit and throw off the shackles and play front-foot football. The lads are good at that and get into their flow when it happens and that first period of the second half was very productive for us and we’re very happy with that.” 

Making life rough for Reape on restarts, Dublin were certainly vibrant on the resumption and were eight points clear nine minutes into the new half. Paul Mannion, Basquel and Brian Fenton landed points before Basquel celebrated his second goal. As Sam Callinan tried to shepherd the ball out for a wide, Mannion put enough pressure on him to keep the ball in play, Costello lifted the ball to himself and squared it to the on-rushing Basquel.

Mayo captain Paddy Durcan broke their 28-minute scoring duck but their spirit was severed. Cillian O’Connor, a replacement for Aidan O’Shea who was slightly unlucky to be benched so early, was reduced to expressing his frustration in rows.

The vista of Jack McCaffrey and Ciarán Kilkenny joining the fray would only have exacerbated Mayo’s fragile state. Having to go to Salthill last weekend after losing in Páirc Uí Chaoimh the previous Sunday was turning out to be ever so costly.

Dublin, meanwhile, have proven once again the importance of taking the shortest route. Farrell had been keen to point out that they were lacking battle fitness up to this point. The argument stands up to further scrutiny after this encounter but injury and stress-free they are where they want to be.

Scorers for Dublin: C. Basquel (2-2); C. Costello (0-5, 3 frees); J. McCarthy (0-3); P. Mannion, C. O’Callaghan (0-2 each); B. Fenton, C. Kilkenny, P. Small (0-1 each).

Scorers for Mayo: R. O’Donoghue (0-5, 2 frees); T. Conroy (0-2); A. O’Shea (free), P. Durcan, J. Flynn, C. Reape (45) (0-1 each).

DUBLIN: S. Cluxton; M. Fitzsimons, D. Byrne, E. Murchan; J. Small, B. Howard, L. Gannon; B. Fenton, J. McCarthy (c); P. Mannion, S. Bugler, N. Scully; C. Basquel, C. O’Callaghan, C. Costello.

Subs: J. McCaffrey for E. Murchan (46); C. Kilkenny for S. Bugler (48); P. Small for N. Scully (54); T. Lahiff for C. Costello (inj 67); D. Rock for C. Basquel (70+1).

MAYO: C. Reape; J. Coyne, D. McBrien, P. O’Hora; S. Callinan, P. Durcan (c), S. Coen; M. Ruane, D. O’Connor; J. Flynn, J. Carney, E. McLaughlin; R. O’Donoghue, A. O’Shea, T. Conroy.

Subs: E. Hession for P. O’Hora (32); C. O’Connor for A. O’Shea (47); K. McLoughlin for E. McLaughlin (53); J. Carr for M. Ruane (59); D. McHugh for S. Coen (temp 59-ft); J. Doherty for S. Callinan (70).

Referee: D. Gough (Meath).