Kilmacud Crokes end Cuala three-in-a-row drive

Na Fianna progressed to their first ever final, comfortably seeing off Lucan Sarsfields

31 October 2021; Referee Sean Stack throws in the sliotar during the Go Ahead Dublin County Senior Club Hurling Championship Semi-Final match between Cuala and Kilmacud Crokes at Parnell Park in Dublin. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Dublin SHC

Cuala’s hopes of a third successive Dublin Senior Hurling Championship title ended on Sunday afternoon as they fell to southside rivals Kilmacud Crokes by 1-18 to 1-13 in their entertaining semi-final clash at Parnell Park.

It was Crokes that enjoyed the brighter start thanks to early points from Caolan Conway and Dara Purcell and they pushed five points clear by the 10th minute as Ronan Hayes converted a penalty following a foul on Alex Considine.

The holders responded well to this setback however as three David Treacy frees and a trio of points from Con O’Callaghan saw them reduce their deficit to two points (1-7 to 0-8) by half-time.

Kilmacud made a vital push for victory in the third quarter with Oisin O’Rorke scoring two superb points to maintain his side’s control and they built a sufficient buffer by the time Sean Moran netted from a free with the final puck of the game.

Earlier in the day, Na Fianna progressed to their first ever final at this level when comfortably seeing off a disappointing Lucan Sarsfields by 1-20 to 0-12.

The writing was on the wall from the early stages as Na Fianna opened up brightly through points from AJ Murphy and Donal Burke before Lucan replied in kind through Ciaran Dowling and Peter Kelly.

However, that early promise from Sarsfields in terms of scores was soon a distant memory as they struggled to make any impression up front as their opponents opened up a sizeable lead following points by the impressive Paul O’Dea, Burke, Peter Feeney and Colin Currie.

Lucan looked to have limited the damage approaching the interval but suffered a massive blow in the 30th minute as Colin Currie fired to the net after Sean McClelland had initially repelled a Sean Currie attempt.

There was never any semblance of a Sarsfields comeback upon the restart as they failed to score from play for the final 20 minutes and Na Fianna cruised home by an 11-point margin with Burke taking his personal tally to 0-9 by the final whistle.