Perhaps the most fearsome element of the Dublin juggernaut is their endlessly rotating cast of match-winners. Cormac Costello popped off the bench to win the All-Ireland last year and was hardly heard from in 2017, a year in which Dublin were largely bereft of Diarmuid Connolly.
Yet the Dubs still found a way of getting over the line, thanks in part to the emergence of Con O'Callaghan. The Cuala man rarely does things by half measures, and today took Mayo for three points with the game's opening score.
Today completes a stunning freshman year for O'Callaghan with the Dublin senior team, and it adds some further decoration to one of the most extraordinary individual 12 months in GAA history.
Since September of last year, O'Callaghan has won a Dublin, Leinster, and All-Ireland senior hurling titles with Cuala, Leinster and All-Ireland Under-21 titles with the Dublin footballers, and today added a senior All-Ireland title to the Leinster crown he won back in June. He also picked up a winners' medal after last year's All-Ireland with the seniors too, although played no part in the final. This year has been different.
He has been parachuted into the Championship this year despite playing no league football, and has lit it up. He stood up to the plate in the absence of Dean Rock (black-carded) and Diarmuid Connolly (let's not go there) during the Leinster final and scored 0-12, half of them from placed balls with Rock stewing on the touchline.
O'Callaghan went on to score one of the goals of the year against Tyrone in the semi-final, while today's finish will make a top ten of 2017.
He is a virtual certainty to be Young Player of the Year, a contender for the senior award, and likely to be named in the All-Star team.
Oh, and he's only 21.
See Also: Today's MOM Will Be From Dublin, But It Should Be A Mayo Man
