Will Austin O'Malley's travels lead him to All-Ireland success with Cuala?

Cuala as a club is on the verge of joining Cork's St Finbarr's as the only two clubs to have won All-Ireland senior titles in both codes.

Sat, 18 Jan, 2025 - 07:15

Paul Keane

Have boots, will travel. Open to new projects. Austin O'Malley's approach to both club and county football has been guided by those basic principles.

The Cuala manager last year reflected on the 20th anniversary of Mayo's 2004 All-Ireland final defeat to Kerry, a Mayo panel he was part of. The Louisburgh man was also part of the 2006 group that lost to Kerry.

That same year, he fired two points in UCD's Dublin SFC final win over St Vincent's, the storied Marino club that he ironically transferred to two seasons later.

A talented forward, he was on the move again in 2011, joining Wicklow side St Pat's, a switch which resulted in a return to inter-county activity, this time under Wicklow manager Mick O'Dwyer.

When the legendary O'Dwyer pulled down the shutters on his successful spell with the Garden County in 2011, losing a qualifier replay tie to Armagh, O'Malley was there in his lineup.

Five years on, O'Malley was back battling for his native Louisburgh and helped them win a Connacht junior club title before turning his attention to coaching and management in more recent years.

A schoolteacher by trade, he founded Hexagon Performance and has combined theory, practice and experience over the course of his three years with Cuala, culminating in this weekend's All-Ireland final appearance.

"I'm out that neck of the woods anyway, it made sense for me," O'Malley explained ahead of the club's first-ever county football title last October of how he came to be involved with the Dalkey side.

"I was in with the club a number of years ago doing a bit of coaching with the guys and built a connection. For me it's all about that connection, establishing that connection with a group of people. It's the collective, I'm just spearheading it. We've been on a good trajectory over the last couple of years, building upwards. A lot of young guys have come in, it's just a really good group."

O'Malley took over as Cuala manager for the 2022 season after their promotion to Senior A. They reached two quarter-finals, in 2022 and 2023, and then won the county title in 2024, their first-ever.

Now Cuala as a club is on the verge of joining Cork's St Finbarr's as the only two clubs to have won All-Ireland senior titles in both codes.

O'Malley's involvement has been central and it would be no surprise if, like Mattie Kenny after winning back-to-back All-Ireland hurling titles with Cuala in 2017 and 2018, the much travelled Mayo man goes on to inter-county management.

"Aussie is great," said Cuala midfielder Peadar O Cofaigh Byrne. "You can probably see it over the last three years, and now in his third year, that everything is falling into place. Everything he has brought forward, as regards the mental side of things and the performance side of things, has really come to the fore this year, which he has been building in fairness over the last two years."

Immediately after last weekend's semi-final win over Coolera/Strandhill in Cavan, O'Malley was quick to frame the short turnaround time to the final as a positive.

"If you can't get yourself up for an All-Ireland final well then you shouldn't be here," he argued.

It is one of the biggest challenges yet in his burgeoning management career though, to send a fresh and firing Cuala into battle again tomorrow. The same challenge faces Enda McGinley with an Errigal Ciaran side that needed extra-time to overcome Dr Crokes.

Coolera/Strandhill played a patient counter-attacking game and held onto possession for long spells.

Errigal Ciaran can shut up shop when they have to as well but will try to work the ball forward to the Canavans much quicker than Coolera/Strandhill did when attempting to bring their marquee forward Niall Murphy into play.

O'Malley has Dublin great Michael Fitzsimons at his disposal and considering the veteran, in Paul Flynn's words, 'smoked' David Clifford in an All-Ireland final only 18 or so months ago, it may be tempting to set him loose on either of those Canavans.

O'Malley will ultimately leave it in his players' hands to deliver a historic win, placing an emphasis in this week's build up on being 'cleverer' in and out of possession than they were last weekend.

Join Examiner Sport for minute-by-minute coverage of the All-Ireland senior club finals this Sunday afternoon.