Dublin's Colm Basquel lays 2021 semi-final nightmare to rest

Colm Basquel came on as a substitute in the 2021 semi-final defeat to Mayo. He kicked a wide, turned over the ball, and was black carded in extra time

Mon, 03 Jul, 2023 - 07:45

Maurice Brosnan

Grimace. Bow the head. Make for the sideline and sit despondently in the rain. Drab a jacket across the legs like a consoling blanket. Watch the empire crumple down and listen to the ruler pinpoint your mistake as the turning point.

Do you remember it? Was that tragic figure forgotten in the red and green explosion of joy that unfolded that day? Who thought we’d see him on the big stage again?

Colm Basquel came on as a substitute in that 2021 semi-final. He kicked a wide with 15 minutes remaining. Two minutes into extra-time he tried a foolhardy handpass to himself and watched Lee Keegan collect the ball and tear forward. That move ended in a Tommy Conroy boomer into the Davin end. Mayo moved level. The defending champions didn’t score again.

Basquel was then black carded in the next passage. In the instant moment he appeared crestfallen, cut to the core. Subsequently, suddenly, Mayo twisted the knife. They scored the next three points to claim a famous victory while Dessie Farrell pointed to one moment as “the killer.” Basquel’s infringement.

“That probably spelt the death knell at that stage,” he said back then.

The Ballyboden St Enda’s battler was one of Farrell’s crop. A member of that 2017 U21 All-Ireland winning team alongside Con O’Callaghan, Eoin Murchan, and Brian Howard. He witnessed them all become key cogs in a magnificent outfit and diligently awaited his opportunity. The forward existed in the mind of the GAA public as a peculiar kind of player. The close by guy. A man on the fringe. A known known. An O'Byrne Cup regular from 2017-2019. He came on in the second half of the 2020 decider and featured throughout the following campaign until that cruel conclusion. He wasn’t part of the panel last year.

Dublin played Wicklow in the O'Byrne Cup last January. None of the players who featured then played against Mayo in the All-Ireland quarter-final, except one. He finished it with 2-2 and the Man of the Match award. This team famously don’t celebrate scores. Basquel’s second goal came after Paul Mannion’s quick-thinking and Cormac Costello’s splendid flick. As the ball was played in, Basquel was out near the 45. His admirable support run was rewarded with a palmed finish. Then he spun away with both arms momentarily upright. Rules be damned, this was a well-deserved commemoration. Beaming wildly, giddy in front of the Hill, Basquel laid 2021 to rest in the most emphatic fashion possible.

“Good spot. He has probably been waiting for this type of a day since that,” said Farrell post-match. “That was a particularly tough time for him after that game, as it would be for any footballer so delighted for Collie.”

At this point the temptation is to lean into this comeback as the perfect redemption arc. When we asked the question, we literally framed it as a remarkable arc. It looks and feels like a seismic shift. Villain one day turns hero the next. One day they were awful, the next awesome. We all love a good story, who cares if it's true?

Here is the thing. Pay due consideration and you’ll realise Gaelic football doesn’t work like that. Not really. In reality mistakes happen, all over the field, all the time. James McCarthy started out his afternoon with a silly shove on Diarmuid O’Connor. Dublin had a free at the time, referee David Gough rescinded it and instead threw the ball up. Soon after Tommy Conroy scorched the captain and took him for a yellow card and converted Aidan O’Shea free.

By the time the final whistle sounded, we were left wondering is McCarthy now the frontrunner for the greatest Dub of all time? Here was a performance to inspire a title charge. Two superb points only the crowning stroke on top of a running masterpiece. Every drive forward seemed to tear Mayo asunder. As his GPS ticked well into double digits, those early blunders were mere specks in the distance way back in kilometre one.

It is all part of the game. One specific moment might stand out in the memory but weighting it with career-defining importance is usually a fundamental misunderstanding of elite performance and grossly unfair on the participants. Basquel wasn’t any more to blame for Dublin’s defeat two years ago as their scoreless third quarter was, before he even took to the field. Tom Lahiff was also shown a black card in extra-time. McCarthy completely lost the head and obtained one too. Nothing was spun on one specific mistake; the tie turned on several.

Did they reference 2021 at all?

“Not per se,” said Farrell. “Some things you don’t need to say, and you’ve to be careful if you say other things that it doesn’t embed certain suggestions and everything else. We just stuck to our pillars of performance and what we were going after and how we wanted to play and try and impose ourselves on the game the way we wanted to. We got there this time around.”

Exactly. Rather than defining a contest by one enormous X, it should be determined by a series of pluses and minuses. Bank enough ticks in the right columns and you’ll come out on top. For Mayo, their copy sheet will be strewn with red pen. Once more, it would be wholly wrong to shade one fall guy.

Basquel was brilliant on Sunday. His first goal was a perfect distillation of the pace and power required to excel in the modern game. Davy Byrne’s agricultural delivery was down the throat of Mayo’s full-back line. Pádraig O'Hora looked lost while Basquel was where he belonged. He beat Colm Reape with a left-footed snapshot, having already cut along the endline and curled over a point on his right.

He was always capable of that. The challenge now is delivering it consistently. The expectation is not to be flawless, merely enough to push this group towards July 30 and the ultimate prize.

No doubt we’ll spin one hell of a redemption story out of that one.