[dropcap]D[/dropcap]ublin defeated Mayo in a thrilling All-Ireland Senior Football final replay at Croke Park last Saturday that featured 20 graduates and current students from Dublin City University.
Jim Gavin’s Dublin retained Sam Maguire with a 1-15 to 1-14 win over Mayo to finish the 2016 campaign unbeaten having taken the National League as well as the Leinster Championship along the way.
DCU graduate Cormac Costello starred off the bench to score three crucial points in the closing stages of the at times tense affair that saw Dublin get over the line.
Stephen Cluxton collected Sam Maguire for the third time as captain for Dublin while DCU graduates such as Paul Flynn (Fingallions), Jonny Cooper (Na Fianna), James McCarthy (Ballymun Kickhams) and Ciarán Kilkenny (Castleknock) also played key roles in the Liffeysiders’ successful bid to retain the top prize in Gaelic football.
Scoring contributions from the impressive Dean Rock and former footballer of the year Bernard Brogan further highlighted the dominance DCU alumni imposed on the occasion.
As would be expected, the greater share of DCU alumni wore blue on the day – with 13 representing Dublin compared to seven on Stephen Rochford’s team sheet.
Diarmuid O’Connor, Cillian O’Connor and Patrick Durcan made the biggest impact of the former DCU students playing for the Westerners, notching 12 of Mayo’s 14 points. Also among the DCU alumni was Rob Hennelly, who stole goalkeeper David Clarke’s spot in the team and the headlines with it.
Gavin Quinn
Image credit: Sportsfile
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