'Sometimes it's just the sheer desire' - O'Malley salutes his Cuala heroes 

HOW SWEET IT IS: Cuala's Luke Tracey, Cathal O'Giollain and Conor O'Brien celebrate winning. Pic: INPHO/Dan Clohessy

Con O’Callaghan had dug Cuala’s footballers out of many a hole in the recent past. This time the roles were reversed.

Austin O’Malley’s side had only just absorbed the hammer blow of an equalizing Kilmacud Crokes in the Dublin senior football final when their star forward was sent off for an incident that occurred beyond eyeshot of almost everyone at the far end of the ground. Even the TV cameras missed it.

There were mere minutes of normal time still to be played and, while extra-time wasn’t on the menu, a straight red would likely have ruled him out of the replay had the survived the closing chapter of this one. Even that looked a tall order. But Cuala pulled through.

“He has been such a huge player for us and we needed to buckle down and hit our straps when that happened,” said O’Malley, “because he has pulled us out of the fire so many times in the past, in relegation games when things maybe weren’t going so well.” 

O’Malley framed this as a testament to his side’s character. He was right. Cuala controlled so much of this game in spite of the stormy conditions and the weight that comes with trying to win your first county senior football title against a team aiming for four-in-a-row.

The day up to then had gone as they wanted. Cuala had spoken last week of the need to nullify a big opening from the champions. They did that. They spoke at half-time about the likelihood of a “lightning bolt” coming their way. And then it did.

Kilmacud had come back at them three times in that second-half, cutting the gap to a single goal before Luke Ward brought the sides level after finding the net just seconds after his introduction. That’s the kind of turn that could have left Cuala in a spin. To come through after that shows guts.

“It does and to a man they stuck at it and found a way," O'Malley added. "It goes back to the nights drilling. We are at this the last few years, trying to do things in training and even the idea of going down to 14 there.

“We had drilled that out in training and the mentality required when that happens and the shape needed. All those things came to fruition.

“This game is funny. You can talk as much as you want about tactics and whatever. Sometimes it is just the sheer desire not to bend and be true to your values and go for it.”