O'Malley: When storm came King Con stayed calm

The six-time All-Ireland winner helped Cuala weather the Errigal comeback hurricane

Mon, 20 Jan, 2025 - 07:34

Paul Keane

Austin O'Malley acknowledged there were concerning moments for Cuala as they fought back a remarkable Errigal Ciaran resurgence to win the All-Ireland.

Cuala are known as a team that switches off at times though even they couldn't have expected to, firstly, lead an All-Ireland club final by 14 points and then see that lead cut to just a solitary score in a frenzied second-half.

Asked if he started to worry at any stage, Cuala manager O'Malley nodded.

"I'd be lying to you if I said I didn't," said the former Mayo and Wicklow forward. "I was trying to remain calm out there but when that Errigal tide came at us, particularly after Peter Harte's goal... I just knew once he turned and he hit it, there was only one place that ball was going. It was exceptional, the strike. That was a big moment, a momentum shift.

"I always say, a Croke Park goal is bigger maybe than it is in other stadiums because it just gives up this cacophony of sound and noise and it came in behind Errigal and lifted them.

"So yeah, definitely. We needed to make a couple of changes bench-wise and just get our hands on the ball and drop the temperature of the game again and try to work a few phases.

"We had a cushion so it wasn't about going up the field and maybe pulling the trigger. It was about settling on possession and managing it a little bit."

In the eye of the storm, Con O'Callaghan remained calm, a veteran of so many Croke Park hurricanes. It was the six-time All-Ireland winner with Dublin who created the insurance score at the death for young sub Conor Groarke.

"I'm always saying, the game is full of patterns, and it's about identifying those patterns, and when you've played so many games and won so many All-Irelands, you recognise patterns probably earlier than players that haven't," said O'Malley of King Con.

"It gives you that little edge to understand that now is the time I need to get my hands on the ball. It's your situation sense kicking in, 'This is a key moment when I need to do something'. That's what the game is about."

On Cuala's habit of coasting at stages in games, O'Malley defended his group.

"Some people would say maybe that's a weakness within our game that we shouldn't let teams back. But when you get to this end of a championship, there's such quality coming up against you that teams are going to wrestle momentum away from you."

Tyrone great Enda McGinley, previously an Errigal Ciaran player, experienced this loss as manager. He said he was 'still in shock' an hour or so after the game.

"I'm probably still in shock just at what happened in that first half," he said. "It will take a wee bit of time to digest. We were miles off it in the first half and came in at half-time with obviously the game gone. It was gone even three-quarters of the way through the first half.

"The boys are just devastated, obviously. It was such a huge day for them and for the club and to come and perform like we did in the first half, it's the nightmare you sort of fear and it came to pass."

The Canavan brothers, Darragh and Ruairí, tore Dr Crokes asunder at times the previous weekend but Darragh went off injured at Croke Park midway through the first half. He suffered a head injury and, remarkably, Ruairí needed to be escorted off the pitch at full-time as he was 'dazed' too.

"They're both going to head to hospital now for further checks and what not," said McGinley. "Darragh obviously came off, he was groggy and he was not right. He just took a knee unfortunately to the head. When I went out to him, I knew it was serious enough and you just can't take risks with that.

"Then Ruairí unfortunately...I didn't realise it at the time but he was the first player I went to after the match and he was well out of it. On reflection, the last five, 10 minutes, I'm not sure where his hit came out of but unfortunately he's dazed as well."

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