Cuala claim first football title after Kilmacud classic
RADIO GAGA: Cuala supporters, including Des Cahill, celebrate after the Dublin SFC final against Kilmacud Crokes at Parnell Park. Pic: Daire Brennan/Sportsfile
Not content with the silverware mined in hurling, Cuala are now in the business of winning football titles.
It’s four years since the hurlers' golden era ended with a fifth Dublin crown to go with a pair of Leinster and All-Ireland equivalents. The pitch invasion that followed the final whistle here on Sunday would suggest that this maiden Dublin senior win will be cherished every bit as much.
Parnell Park’s banks were always going to burst regardless once Cuala claimed a first ever county senior title with the big ball, but the energy of that human wave was all the more intense for the way they achieved it.
Three points up with four minutes to play, against the three-in-a-row champions, Austin O’Malley’s men were comfortable without being complacent having held off repeated surges by Kilmacud Crokes in a second-half played into the teeth of Storm Ashley.
Then their whole world wobbled on its axis within a minute.
First Luke Ward ran on to a Paul Mannion pass before equalising with a goal just seconds after coming on to the field. Then Cuala’s talisman Con O’Callaghan was shown a straight red card at the other end for an incident that had passed almost everyone by.
Cuala stuck at it.
Luke Keating and Mannion swapped frees just before the electronic board signalled an extra five minutes. The winning of it was another Keating free that fell short before defender Eoin Kennedy scooped up the loose ball and fisted it over the bar.
It was a gutsy way to pull through. Cuala had lost two tight county quarter-finals the last two years, one to their opponents here and another to St Jude’s. A collective can carry scars from days like that but any long-term damage was obviously negligible.
Michael Fitzsimons, a man who has won nine All-Irelands with Dublin, seemed stuck for words when talking to TG4 after, as he touched on how the footballers were finally emerging from the long shadows left by that legendary hurling side.
“Hard to believe. During that game we were in control, quite comfortable. We knew we were facing quite a big wind but it just shows the heart and determination of those lads. Setback after setback there and to grind it out was just incredible.”
Fitzsimons, incidentally, was exceptional. He kept the closest of tabs on Paddy O’Connor who has been such a huge player for Kilmacud this year. He augmented that by scoring two superb points, the second after flicking the ball over Shane Walsh’s head.
Old dog, new tricks.
Crokes have enjoyed a rich seam of success with county, provincial and national titles and they were looking to become the first club to claim a four-in-a-row of Dublin senior football titles since St Vincent’s in the early 1960s.
Time and again in the last three years they have found ways to win games that could have gotten away from them but Cuala controlled the narrative this time and would have been entitled to feel frustrated had it gone to a replay.
Kilmacud started against the wind and did their best to count down the clock for 30 minutes. Their lateral and interminable passing was maybe the best advert yet for the trial rules that had been on display in Croke Park earlier in the weekend, Ultimately, Robbie Brennan's side managed just two points in the first period. Cuala claimed seven points in each half and could have had two goals soon after the restart when Con O’Callaghan had a shot blocked and Niall O’Callaghan had one tipped superbly over the bar by Devon Burns.
That they sourced as many scores against the elements as with it said everything about their consistency through the day. They had only half as many errant shots on goal as their opponents and were more direct with ball in hand.
They deserved this.
L Keating (0-3, 0-2 frees); C Doran (0-3); M Fitzsimons (0-2); E Kennedy, C McMorrow, P Ó Cofaigh Byrne, P Duffy N O’Callaghan and C O’Callaghan (all 0-1).
s: P Mannion (0-4, 0-1 free and 0-1 mark); S Walsh (0-3, 0-1 free); L Ward (1-0); H Kenny, C Dias, D Mullin (all 0-1).
: R Scollard; D Conroy, M Fitzsimons, E O’Callaghan; E Kennedy, C McMorrow, D O’Dowd; P Ó Cofaigh Byrne, P Duffy; C Dunne, C Ó Giolláin, C Doran; L Keating, N O’Callaghan, C O’Callaghan.
Subs: C Groarke for Ó Giolláin (43); C Mulally for Dunne (48); L Ward for O’Brien (blood, 54) and for Murphy (56).
: D Burns; M Mullin, T Clancy, D O’Brien; M O’Leary, A McGowan, J Murphy; B Shovlin, R O’Carroll; H Kenny, C Dias, D Mullin; P Mannion, P O’Connor, S Walsh.
Subs: C O’Connor for O’Leary (43); T Fox for Kenny (45); M Conroy for D Conroy (56); S Cunningham for O’Connor (71).
: S McCarthy (St Vincent’s).
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