Diarmuid Connolly has hailed Colm Basquel and “Rolls Royce” James McCarthy after Dublin stormed into the All-Ireland semi-final last Sunday.
The 2-17 to 0-11 victory was their biggest ever over Mayo in Championship football and arguably Dublin’s best performance in a number of years.
Former Dubs star Connolly acknowledged that manager Dessie Farrell made “big calls” in leaving out Ciaran Kilkenny and Dean Rock, but Basquel and Cormac Costello came up trumps.
He said: “Cormac Costello played very well and he definitely put his hand up for the jersey the next day, kicking five points. And Colm Basquel, he's having the season of a lifetime. That’s probably three man of the match performances in-a-row.
“James McCarthy is a Rolls Royce. People were talking about him marking Aidan O'Shea in the full-back line, but him and Brian Fenton were absolutely immense.
“The hard-line running from McCarthy, Eoin Murchan and Sean Bugler was really breaking the ground and they were kicking the ball into the guys inside more. That just created chaos in that Mayo full-back line and they didn't deal with it at all.
“I actually thought Mayo played well first half, I thought they were the better side. But they never came out in the second half. Dublin just kicked on after the break and wiped them out. So it’s back to the drawing board for Mayo.”
Dublin go on to meet Monaghan in the last four on Saturday week but Connolly doesn’t see any great potential for an upset.
“Monaghan have a never-say-die attitude, but I just don’t see where they are going to get their scores from. They’ll need more from their inside forward line to trouble Dublin.”
Connolly expects that Derry will pose a bigger threat to Kerry than Monaghan will to Dublin, but he was particularly impressed with the All-Ireland champions’ midfield pairing in their 12-point demolition of Tyrone.
“The two match-ups at midfield were the trick for Kerry. Jack Barry on Conn Kilpatrick and Diarmuid O’Connor on Brian Kennedy.
“Diarmuid O'Connor had the game of the season – him and Sean O'Shea were the guys driving it forward. David Clifford was wasteful enough in front of goal, but even on a quiet day he's putting five on the scoreboard.
“2-18 is a huge score for Kerry to put up, when they get to Croke Park they're very hard to stop. If any team were going to do it this year, I thought it would have been Tyrone. But Kerry are also mean at the back.”
And the seven-time All-Ireland winner has challenged Derry to meet Kerry head-on in the other semi-final on Sunday week.
“Derry need to kick on now and have a huge performance against them. I don’t think they should try to nullify Kerry, they should really go after them.
“It’ll be a tighter affair against Derry, but Kerry are waiting in the long grass. I was so impressed with Diarmuid O'Connor and Jack Barry at midfield, I just don’t know if Derry can match them.
“It is being billed as a Dublin v Kerry final and there shouldn't be any complacency from either team, but it can happen.
“I think Derry might put it up to Kerry a little bit more than what Monaghan will do to Dublin.”
