Gaelic Games

Leinster club SFC semi-final: Cuala grind out victory over Tullamore

Dalkey outfit will play St Mary’s, Ardee in a novel provincial final that few would have predicted

Tullamore's Cillian Bourke and Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne of Cuala. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho
Tullamore's Cillian Bourke and Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne of Cuala. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho
Sun Nov 24 2024 - 12:28
Leinster club SFC semi-final: Cuala (Dublin) 1-10 Tullamore (Offaly) 0-10

First-time Dublin champions Cuala showed us all their class a fortnight ago when dispatching Naas in the Leinster club championship.

That game was a cracker but this was more of a tense arm wrestle, a late-November slugfest on a heavy pitch with a gusting wind.

Could the Dalkey outfit handle that sort of challenge too? Absolutely.

Peter Duffy struck the killer early goal that ultimately separated the sides and propelled Austin O’Malley’s side through to next Saturday’s final at nearby Croke Park.

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They will play St Mary’s, Ardee in a novel provincial final that few would have predicted.

Yet while Duffy will go down as the man who decided this semi-final, it was what Cuala did in the final quarter that really mattered.

Five points in a row between the 43rd and 52nd minutes proved decisive as they moved within an hour of emulating the club’s hurlers who won Leinster titles in 2016 and 2017.

Aside from Duffy, Con O’Callaghan impressed with four important points while Michael Fitzsimons fisted a score during that late burst which did for Tullamore.

O’Malley summed up the conditions, and Tullamore’s robust challenge, as “tricky”.

“At half-time, a bit like the Naas game, we knew that we’d left a little behind us,” said former Mayo and Wicklow forward O’Malley, referencing his side’s slender 1-3 to 0-3 lead at that stage. “We’d carved them open and we just weren’t clinical up top.”

They didn’t exactly hit the afterburners after the restart and Tullamore, who won their first game in Leinster since 1977 in the previous round, actually drew level at 1-4 to 0-7.

But that was as good as it got for Niall Stack’s visiting side who were undone by that impressive five-point blitzkrieg from Cuala.

Con and Niall O’Callaghan, Luke Keating, Fitzsimons and Duffy all registered points as Cuala moved from level to 1-9 to 0-7 ahead, giving them a vital cushion to repel the anticipated late Tullamore goal siege.

Cuala: R Scollard; E O’Callaghan, C McMorrow (0-1), D Conroy; D O’Dowd, M Fitzsimons (0-1), E Kennedy; P O Cofaigh Byrne, P Duffy (1-1); N O’Callaghan (0-1), C Doran, C Dunne (0-1); L Keating (0-1), C O’Callaghan (0-4, one free), C O’Brien. Subs: C O Giollain for Dunne 43, C Groarke for O’Brien 43, M Conroy for Kennedy 50, S Mangan for O’Dowd 57, J Power for Doran 59.

Tullamore: C White; P McConway, J Furlong (0-1), D McDaid; N Bracken (0-1), O Keenan-Martin, D Hogan; C Bourke, A Hensey; M Brazil (0-1, one free), D Egan, N Furlong (0-1); H Plunkett (0-6, five frees), C Egan, D Fox. Subs: L Egan for D Fox h/t, A Leavy for Hensey 39, C Burns for McConway 43, M Fox for N Furlong 52.

Referee: A Nolan (Wicklow).