HOW would you describe the 2024/25 All-Ireland Club Football final?
A ‘game of two halves’ maybe? The old cliché fits the bill.
Cuala were so dominant in the first half that Errigal seemed destined for embarrassment. To their credit, the Tyrone men forced the pendulum to swing their way in the second half but not quite far enough.
To their credit, the Dubliners hung in there and refused to capitulate.
“Given what Errigal have beaten and the games they’ve been in I was fully aware that they were going to come back at us,” said manager Austin O’Malley.
“We spoke about it at half-time that there was definitely going to be something coming.
“We put a nice bit of daylight between ourselves and them there in the first half and I thought our patterns were pretty fluid and the stuff that we’d have worked on and trusted all year came through in the wash.
“Errigal really rolled their sleeves up and they really tested us and it got a little bit closer than I’d have liked there at times but our guys still managed to pinch those vital scores and manage the ball a little bit better.
“That allowed us that little bit of cushion to see it out to the end there.”
This has been a momentous year of firsts for Dalkey outfit Cuala. Twenty years ago, an All-Ireland senior title would have been unthinkable for the club.
O’Malley’s men won their first Dublin senior championship this year and then added the Leinster and now All-Ireland crowns.
“Our whole season has been built on growth and opportunity,” said Mayo native O’Malley.
“Two or three years ago when I came in, the idea was really growing the individual and then growing the group and the game within the club.
“We created a vision around being successful and going after certain key targets and I suppose winning a Dublin championship first was a really, really key one for us to get across the line against (Kilmacud) Crokes, who have been unbelievable champions.
“That really gave us a sense of ourselves and maybe it emboldened us and that kind of fed in then.
“The Naas game (Leinster quarter-final), I think we took a huge amount from it and it’s just grown. It’s a historic moment. It’s a very special feeling and I’m so grateful again to the club for even giving me the opportunity to be here and be involved and manage these guys.”
Con O’Callaghan scored 0-5 to ensure that he now has an All-Ireland club football medal to go along with the two hurling titles he won with Cuala in 2017 and 2018.
Midfielder Peter Duffy, whose second-half points calmed Cuala nerves, said the club’s success in the caman code helped inspire the footballers.
“I’m over the moon, I can’t believe it,” he said.
“If you’d told us at the start of the summer that we’d be even in an All-Ireland final, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.
“To get over the line today… I don’t even know what to say. I’m so thrilled. I hope it means a lot to everyone back home in Dalkey, hopefully they’re all proud of us.
“After the two All-Irelands with the hurlers, even as days out... I remember them and being whatever I was, 16/17, and you were going in to watch them thinking that this was like a dream to play in Croke Park, with fellas that you have grown up with.
“To do that with the club is so special.”
