Ben Galvin isn't known as a massive underage prospect in Dublin GAA circles - but judging by his performance on Thursday in the Dublin senior football semi-final, perhaps he should be.
Forty-six minutes have gone by in the Dublin senior football semi-final and it looks for all the world like Kevin McManamon has just blown out the brave Castleknock flame. 'Knock two points up and looking relatively comfortable, McManamon finds himself with an open path to goal and does what four-time All-Ireland winners do in that situation. The net billows.
Now comes the key moment for this young Castleknock team. How will they respond to such a setback? Eyes turn to the Sherry brothers from Fermanagh, Ciaran Kilkenny. But instead it is one of the youngest (and most slight) players on the field who takes charge and scores a crucial equaliser.
(Video: Official Dublin GAA)
Ben Galvin may only be nineteen years old but on Thursday, after a game which Ciaran Kilkenny owned and Des Carlos decided, his name was the one that lingered in the mind. His score came shortly after his bad miss from a similar angle had Castleknock supporters gasping in exasperation; his refusal to let this affect him in any way - even in his body language immediately after the shot - showed a level of on-field maturity beyond his years.
His all-round display was punctuated by a noticeable calmness in possession, a positional awareness and a bravery in pushing forward as well as a remarkable level of physical endurance that, while undoubtedly built from countless hours of hard training, is of such a level that it must come from somewhere deeper - his father Mick, one suspects, who was corner-forward on the All-Ireland winning Dublin side in 1995.
Galvin wasn't on the Dublin minor radar and around this time last year was playing in a losing Castleknock side in a Junior 'C' final away to Ballinteer St John's, registering just a point - the same crucial amount he scored on Thursday night. Yet until he was substituted just before the hour mark he looked utterly at home alongside and against former and current senior inter-county stars and All-Ireland winners. He led just as much as players with over a decade more experience when the game was in the melting pot.
Watching Galvin on Thursday evening, one could not help but compare him to Kilkenny, a nominee for 'Footballer of the Year', and ponder that with a few extra pounds of muscle he could be a similar style of player - the endurance, the accuracy, the leadership.
Can he be as good? We won't get ahead of ourselves - Kilkenny is one of the players of his generation. But we don't expect that this is the last we'll be hearing of young Ben Galvin.
