James Power, left, and Luke Keating of Cuala lift the Andy Merrigan Cup after the AIB GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Club Championship final match between Cuala and Errigal Ciarán at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
AIB All-Ireland Club SFC Final
CUALA 3-14 ERRIGAL CIARÁN 1-16
By John Harrington at Croke Park
This was a funny old game.
Cuala looked home and hosed when they surged 13 points ahead after a blockbusting first-half performance but by the finish they were hanging on to a much smaller lead for dear life.
Errigal Ciarán should be proud of the defiance they showed to make a match of it in the second half but they’ll go back up the road with plenty of regrets about their first-half performance.
They were cut to ribbons by the athleticism and clinical finishing of the Dublin team who scored three first-half goals and were ruthless in absolutely everything they did.
Errigal Ciaran played laterally and with little self-belief in that first half whereas Cuala went confidently for the jugular and were rewarded for that approach.
The Dubs weren’t nearly so self-assured in the second-half and were nearly made pay for it.
In the end Errigal Ciarán simply left themselves too much to do, and without Darragh Canavan who was forced off injured after 20 minutes they didn’t quite have the firepower to complete what would have been one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the All-Ireland Senior Club Football Champioship.
The first Cuala goal came after just five minutes and it was a thing of beautiful simplicity.
Cal Doran played a one-two with Mick Fitzsimons that sent him clean through on the Errigal goal and he kept his cool admirably to side-foot a clinical finish to the bottom left-hand corner.
Thomas Canavan replied with a free for Errigal’s first score of the game but Cuala then hit three quick-fire points before making the net billow for a second time on 13 minutes.
It came from the sort of hard running and slick handling that had been such feature of their play from the off, as Eoin Kennedy and Peadar O’Cofaigh Byrne combined to put the charging David O’Dowd through and the wing-back finished emphatically to put his team 2-4 to 0-1 ahead.
David O'Dowd of Cuala celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the AIB GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Club Championship final match between Cuala and Errigal Ciarán at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Daire Brennan/Sportsfile.
Errigal looked shell-shocked. They kept coughing up possession cheaply and Cuala kept punishing them as Luke Keating and Con O’Callaghan landed two more frees to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
If Errigal didn’t already feel like this just wasn’t going to be their day the penny surely dropped when Darragh Canavan’s day was ended prematurely.
After fumbling a ball delivered to him he dived low to collect it and collided heavily and accidentally with the knee of his marker, Danny Conroy.
It was some time before Errigal’s best player could even get to his feet and when he did he walked down with tunnel to the dressing-room with a suspected concussion.
Things went from bad to worse for the Tyrone champions five minutes later when Cuala hit a third goal.
Once again they created it by sundering the Errigal defence with fast and direct running. This time Con O’Callaghan was the creator as he raced through the middle and put Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne through on goal.
The giant midfielder did brilliantly to direct the ball past Errigal goalkeeper Darragh McAnenly with a first time soccer style kick on the ground and to the back of the net.
Cuala now led by 3-6 to 0-1 and you figured it was no only a mater of how much they’d win this game by.
Credit to Errigal Ciarán, they did manage to summon some sort of response as Joe Oguz, Ruairí Canavan and Odhran Robinson kicked three very sweet points, but Cuala had the last say of the half as points by Niall and Con O’Callaghan put them 3-9 to 0-5 ahead at the break.
Errigal needed a positive start to the second-half if they were going to convince themselves they were still in this game, and they got it as Peter Harte, Thomas Canavan and Ciaran McGinley slung over three well-taken points.
The teams then exchanged two points each before Errigal Ciarán got the goal they so badly needed.
It was a cracker too as the excellent Harte left Charlie McMorrow for dead before rifling the ball to the far corner of the net past a stunned Ryan Scollard from over 20 yards out.
Peter Harte of Errigal Ciarán in action against Charlie McMorrow of Cuala during the AIB GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Club Championship final match between Cuala and Errigal Ciarán at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Daire Brennan/Sportsfile.
The deficit was down to seven points – Cuala 3-11 Errigal Ciarán 1-10 – and the result no longer a formality.
Mark Kavanagh had a good game after coming in for the injured Darragh Canavan and a sweet left-footed score from him gave the Tyrone side further momentum.
Luke Keating tried to steady the Cuala ship with a well-taken score, but Errigal had a wind in their sails now. The very influential Thomas Canavan knocked over two points, substitute Pádraig McGirr kicked another, and then the irrepressible Harte made it a one-score game – 3-13 to 1-16 – with a right-footed score on 58 minutes.
By now Errigal were running on vapours but they did manage to engineer one opportunity for the goal they needed when Harte slalomed through again and passed to McGirr but the substitute’s shot was blocked by a wall of Cuala bodies.
The Dublin club finally made the game safe three minutes into injury-time when Conor Groarke fisted over after being put clear by Con O’Callaghan.
Not the comfortable victory it looked like being at half-time, but they won’t mind, they’re 2024/25 All-Ireland SFC club champions.
Scorers for Cuala: Con O’Callaghan 0-5 (2f, 1 ’45), David O’Dowd 1-1, Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne 1-1, Cal Doran 1-0, Luke Keating 0-3 (2f), Niall O’Callaghan 0-2, Peter Duffy, Conor Groarke both 0-1
Scorers for Errigal Ciarán: Thomas Canavan 0-6 (4f), Peter Harte 1-2, Ruairí Canavan 0-3 (2f), Joe Oguz, Odhran Robinson, Mark Kavanagh, Pádraig McGirr, Mark Kavanagh all 0-1.
CUALA: Ryan Scollard; Danny Conroy, Michael Fitzsimons, Eoghan O’Callaghan; Eoin Kennedy, Charlie McMorrow, David O’Dowd; Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne, Peter Duffy; Cillian Dunne, Conor O’Brien, Cal Doran; Luke Keating, Niall O’Callagahn, Con O’Callaghan. Subs: Conor Groarke for Conor O’Brien (42), Michael Conroy for Cillian Dunne (49), Cathal Ó Giolláin for Danny Conroy (55)
ERRIGAL CIARÁN: Darragh McAnenly; Ciarán Quinn, Aidan McCrory, Cormac Quinn; Peter Óg McCartan, Niall Kelly, Tiarnán Colhoun; Ben McDonnell, Joe Oguz; Peter Harte, Thomas Canavan, Ciarán McGinley; Odhran Robinson, Darragh Canavan, Ruairí Canavan. Subs: Mark Kavanagh for Darragh Canavan (22), Eoin Kelly for Ciarán McGinley (48), Pádraig McGirr for Odhran Robinson (52), Ronan McRory for Thomas Canavan (63).
Ref: Paddy Neilan (Roscommon)
