By Cian O’Connell

It was a decade dripping with chaotic Championship matches involving Dublin and Mayo. The 2013 All Ireland SFC Final was very much part of that list.

Going the distance, Dublin just did enough to fend off Mayo’s spirited challenge. With a full quota of substitutes already used and players injured towards the end, Dublin were clinging on at the death. That is what they did: survive.

Two years previously Dublin ended a 16 year wait for Sam Maguire before losing to Mayo in 2012. Never short on style, Mayo had steel now too under James Horan.

An accomplished collection of green and red footballers were setting the standard out west with their march to the 2013 decider loaded with facile victories.

The stats and figures were scary. Galway overpowered by 17; Roscommon thumped by 12; London beaten by 16; Dongeal, the holders, flattened by 16; Tyrone outfoxed by six.

Five matches with an aggregate winning total of 67. Mayo believed that this could be the campaign, but Dublin’s conveyor belt of talent was rolling.

Jack McCaffrey, Ciaran Kilkenny, and Paul Mannion were amongst those delivering in Jim Gavin’s first year in charge of Dublin.

Immediately after the Mayo triumph the star of the show Bernard Brogan suggested that this new crop of footballers had significant potential to ensure Dublin remained a significant force.

“The age profile is very young and the lads who came in and made a difference all year, the Ciaran Kilkennys, the Jack McCaffreys, the Paul Mannions, these lads have been brilliant all year,” Brogan reflected.

“And they’re still very young, people don’t think about that when they’re looking at them, and the pressure they’re under. They’re 19 and 20 years of age and have 10 years of football ahead of them, so please God there will be many more All-Irelands.” Brogan’s optimism wasn’t misplaced.

**

For all of Dublin’s class some of their most rewarding triumphs came down to sheer courage. This was one of those days.

In the dying embers with Mayo very much in the hunt Dublin players Rory O’Carroll and Eoghan O’Gara were in discomfort, but Dublin still found a way.

Within minutes of the triumph Gavin acknowledged the effort and industry that was required in trying circumstances. “Rory got a bang and his mobility was gone and Eoghan’s hamstring was more or less torn.

“We were defending with 13 men, but that’s a tribute to their resolution that they worked their way through it. We did a few tactical moves on the sideline, but essentially it was all their work. They showed great heart to come through it.”

Horan had earned huge respect for Mayo, but ultimately this loss was added to the list of near September misses. It hurt, especially considering the Green and Red felt that the Dublin scalp was attainable.

“We had enough ball to win the game, we just made too many basic mistakes,” Horan lamented at Croke Park.

“We turned over the ball too often, the ball wouldn’t stick inside for us and Dublin were launching counter attacks. That was basically it, nothing more.

"A few mistakes let us down and in the second half Dublin came with a surge and got ahead and we were chasing then.”

**

Mayo battled until the death. Controversy followed when Cillian O’Connor clipped over a last gasp free reducing the gap to the minimum.

A couple of months later, though, the prolific Ballintubber attacker reflected on the last gasp mayhem. “If I could go back now, knowing that the game would be blown from the restart, obviously I would have thrown caution to the wind, and tried to go for the goal,” O’Connor remarked.

“The way it went, I thought there might be one more passage of play. My understanding was that there would be another little bit of time, and if we had maybe won the kickout, and scored an equaliser .

“I’m just saying it would have looked like a good decision. But if I knew there was as little time as there was I would have gone for the goal.”

O’Connor shared Horan’s sentiments, that small little mistakes proved costly against a Dublin outfit that seized the initiative in the second period.

“Our composure just left us a little bit, but we kept plugging away and kept trying as hard as a we could,” O’Connor reflected. “We just couldn’t get there.

“Sometimes our hand passing let us down a little bit, some of the basics that you need to do right, we were in good positions and just gave away the ball a little bit.

“So that’s a killer in an All-Ireland final, but we kept trying and we kept working as hard as we could. I’m very proud of the guys and all the work they put in, but it’s just very disappointing. It’s a game we were right in, but just couldn’t get the scores.”

Brogan was the forward who supplied the decisive moments, pilfering a couple of opportunistic goals as Dublin prevailed.

“If you’re in the right position, you might get some scores,” Brogan commented. “That’s part and parcel, on any other day someone else would do it, but I’m delighted to do my bit for my team.

“Any day you win an All-Ireland is a special day. But there’s a whole new group of lads in there and you just saw how much it meant to them after the final whistle, it’s a special day and hopefully we’ve another couple left in us, please God.”

The Dublin party was simply relaunched. Donegal’s daring 2014 caused a semi-final surprise, but Dublin haven’t been beaten in Championship fare since.