Kilmacud Crokes 1-18 Cuala 1-13
Cuala’s reign as Dublin champions ended not with a bang and, if whimper is unduly derogatory, it’s fair to say that they were far from at their best. Kilmacud, so often thwarted by their south Dublin rivals in the past, were emphatic winners at Parnell Park in the second semi-final, full of energy and swarming defensive work that jolted the holders from an early stage.
Having taken the lead in the opening seconds through Caolan Conway, they never lost it and will face Na Fianna in the final.
Up front Ronan Hayes persecuted Cuala and Alex Considine’s penetrating and elusive runs cut them open on a number of occasions.
When the clubs met in the group stages in early September, Hayes had been the instrument of their destruction with 3-10, 3-4 of which came from play including a first half hat-trick. Cuala had been missing a few players, most prominently the O’Callaghan brothers Cian and Con.
Fully loaded on Sunday, they remained unable to curb the Kilmacud full forward and he struck for an early penalty after Considine had been taken down in the 10th minute. His confident strike gave Crokes an early five-point lead, 1-4 to 0-2.
The smooth operation of the winners’ attack was evident in the fact that all six starting forwards scored at least once from play.
Winning manager Kieran Dowling afterwards sang the praises of his two-man inside line.
“They’re two very good players. Alex has been injury free this year which has been a gift to us. Ronan is Ronan, he’s just immense, from the first time we played him in a league match against Judes years ago. He’s just such a leader.
“To have that with Dara Purcell playing with them as well, and to have young James Dillon coming in off the bench, and then look, you have Caolan, you have Oisín, you have Fergal Whitely outside you. It’s just fantastic to have that level of support, it really is.”
Cuala battled to stay with the contest. Jake Malone hit a defiant, long-range effort for their second point and when Seán Treacy tripped Hayes to allow the latter another pointed free in the 22nd minute, the champions responded with three unanswered points, two from Con O’Callaghan and a free from David Treacy to go in at the break trailing a flattering two points, 0-8 to 1-7.
For the most part though, the comparison with Kilmacud’s high functioning attack told the story for the champions. Of their starting forwards only O’Callaghan scored from play. David Treacy’s free-taking was patchy and he missed three dead ball shots in the first half.
The winners’ defence deserves credit for their collective efforts and Brian Sheehy did a good job on O’Callaghan, whose touch wasn’t the customary superglue, which meant that he didn’t create those opportunities he loves to snap a ball and run at the full back, but equally his teammates farther out weren’t getting a quality supply into him either. He did, however, make enough space to shoot four points from play.
“Look,” said Dowling, “Con is just a fantastic hurler when he gets the hurling into him so we had to try to screen him and stop him from getting ball, from turning and running straight at you because if you let him run at you, you’re in trouble.
“There’s probably a level of acceptance that you may have to concede a few scores, that he is that good. You can’t hold him scoreless so we just held it tight and I can’t remember what the final scoreline was but we did our best to keep it down. We knew it was going to be completely different to the group game. That was just a turkey shoot.”
After half-time it was more of the same. Oisín O’Rorke and Lorcan McMullen each fired a brace of points and Cuala were largely reduced to dependence on frees and the gap started to widen. Seán Moran, who played in the forwards, went inside on the square to try and win something.
Seán Treacy put a good ball into him in the 46th minute and he managed to open the glimmer of an opportunity but a thunderous block by Bill O’Carroll snuffed out the chance. Having seen an earlier attempt blocked, Moran did manage to bang a 20-metre free into the net at the end of injury-time but all it did was ameliorate the scoreboard.
Cuala defender Michael Conroy was red-carded at the very end.
For Dowling the future is bright.
“We prepared for it. They’ve been great champions. We’re building again; the team that would have lost the last couple of years - we’ve had a lot of change as you would have seen in the backs especially.
“We have a lot of young players coming through. We’re trying to blend them in and you’re always concerned with young players; can they actually do it on the day or will they freeze? And we froze a little bit last year against Lucan. We didn’t do it today and it was just brilliant to get that performance.”
Kilmacud Crokes: Eddie Gibbons; Davy Crowe, Brian Sheehy, Mark Grogan (0-1); Pádhraic Linehan, Bill O'Carroll, Cian Mac Gabhann; Lorcan McMullan (0-2), Dillon Mulligan (0-1); Oisín O'Rorke (0-2), Fergal Whitely (0-2), Caolan Conway (0-1); Dara Purcell (0-2), Ronan Hayes (1-6, 1-0pen, 0-4f), Alex Considine (0-1).
Subs: James Dillion for Purcell (49 mins).
Cuala: Seán Brennan; Michael Conroy, Cian O'Callaghan, Simon Timlin; Jake Malone (0-1), John Sheanon, Cian O'Farrell; Cillian Sheanon, Seán Treacy; Darragh O'Connell, Diarmuid Ó Floinn, David Treacy (0-7, 0-6f, 0-1 '65); Niall Carthy, Con O'Callaghan (0-4), Seán Moran (1-0, 1-0pen).
Subs: Eoghan O'Callaghan for O'Farrell (half-time), Kevin Kirwan (0-1) for Carthy (43 mins), Colum Sheanon for Ó Floinn (53 mins).
Referee: Seán Stack (Parnells).
