The year is 2012 and Cormac Costello is the hottest ticket in Dublin.
He’s the main man for the Dublin minor footballers and he’s the main man for the hurlers too. They coast to Leinster glory in both and the Whitehall-Colmcille gem is rampant.
On they go, the Sky Blues cleaning out all before them on their way to All-Ireland finals in the two codes but none of the rising stars -from Niall Scully to Eric Lowndes, is spoken of in the awed tones Costello is.
And it’s easy to see why. He put in a regal campaign for the footballers – hitting 3-4 in the Leinster final against Meath while bossing it in midfield for the hurlers, as natural a hurler as they’ve seen in these parts for a long time.
There aren’t many GAA players to have won All-Ireland minor medals in both codes in the same year – but the Whitehall-Colmcille gem gave it one hell of a try.
He starred in the football final, hitting Meath for five points in the decider and he nearly drove Dublin to the elusive double – only for Tipperary to undo the dream in a replay.
But that didn’t change things. Costello had it all, speed, strength, skill and composure and whatever way he chose to go – with the hurlers or the footballers – he was going to go on and dominate for years in the Dublin jersey.
Off the bat, he went with the football and he was ready to take off when he went in with the footballers in 2013.
That’s six years ago now, and Costello is still yet to nail down his place in the Dublin forward line. Dublin have played 39 championship games since his championship debut against Donegal and he’s only started eighteen.
Peripherality wasn’t what was predicted for this prodigious talent all those years ago, but when you consider that he’s trying to break into the most competitive forward line of all time, you begin to understand.
And then there’s the injuries. Costello had a lot of them, none-more-so than in 2017 when he pulled his hamstring three times. So on the back of that, his contribution hasn’t been all that pitiful – it’s easy to forget his three point cameo off the bench that won Sam in 2016.
But still, more was expected, and in the league so far this year, Costello is letting us have it.
He’s won two man-of-the-match awards at centre forward in the last three weekends and just last Saturday he hit Mayo for 1-4.
Cormac Costello leaves Keith Higgins for dead… eventually
And you know the rest pic.twitter.com/TRSUpAK3KS
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) February 23, 2019
If he keeps up this form into the championship, he’ll be undroppable and one man who’s delighted to see it come together for him is teammate Cian O’Sullivan.
“He’s playing really really well,” said the Kilmacud Crokes man to us at an AIG event today.
O’Sullivan has seen what Costello can do in training, he knows about the injuries that have held him back but he’s backing Costello to make it count this time around.
“Cormac has been involved in the squad for the past number of years. He’s picked up, for a guy trying to break into the squad, he’s picked up niggly injuries. That’s probably been unfortunate at times. He seems to be on a really good run now over the first four games, he hasn’t really been hampered by the injuries and he’s been getting really good game time. It’s been great to see him doing on the big stage what we’ve seen him being doing in training over the last number of years.”
“He’s an incredible talent, really incredible talent so I’m delighted for him personally to be putting in the good performances that we ask of him and he’d be asking himself to be consistent with this for the next however many league games we have left and into the summer. That’s the real trick.”
Similar to Costello, Evan Comerford in the goals is another young gun who’s showing well and O’Sullivan has been very impressed with him too.
“It was great, brilliant performance by Evan. Great for him personally and better for the team. He’s a top class player. He’s been involved with the squad the last couple of years and it’s great to see him getting game time this year and that’s a massive bonus for the team.
“Evan is a young guy, I think he showed on Saturday that he’s more than capable of putting in a really really good performance. He did that and I think it was flawless.”
27 February 2019; Dublin footballer Cian O’Sullivan at Parnell Park to launch AIG Dub Club Health. The Heart Safety Roadshow is the first programme in the initiative that will provide training around CPR, choking, defibrillator/AED usage, storage and maintenance.
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