AIB Leinster Club SFC Final: Cuala secure dramatic win

AIB Leinster Club SFC Final

Cuala 1-14 Ardee St Mary's 2-10

By Paul Keane at Croke Park

At the tail end of his Cuala career, Luke Keating can celebrate his greatest achievement having made history for the Dublin club.

Veteran attacker Keating's stoppage time point from a free proved to be the match winner at Croke Park, clinching a dramatic first ever AIB Leinster club SFC title for the Dalkey club.

Even more significant than that is that the south Dublin club is now the first to have won both Leinster senior football and hurling titles.

Cuala's hurlers famously won Leinster championships in 2016 and 2017, with Dublin football star Con O'Callaghan involved in both breakthrough groups.

They did it the hard way this time at Croke Park and coughed up what was at one stage in the first-half a nine-point lead to find themselves on level terms three times late on against a rallying Ardee.

Ardee goals in the 49th and 50th minutes from substitute Ryan Rooney, who finished with 1-2, and Sean Callaghan, hauled them right back and suggested they might become the first ever Louth team to lift the title.

Crucially, they never led in the game and 35-year-old father of two Keating, an All-Ireland U-20 medal winner with Dublin way back in 2010, seized when Michael Fitzsimons was fouled to clip over the winner in the 62nd minute.

Cuala will head on now to the All-Ireland series and a semi-final against the Connacht champions - either Coolera/Strandhill (Sligo) or Padraig Pearses (Roscommon) - on the first weekend of January.

There must have been a huge sense of deja vu for Mary's having endured a similar nightmare first-half against Dublin opposition in the same competition last year.

They hosted Kilmacud Crokes at the semi-final stage in 2023 and the Dublin champions led by 1-10 to 0-3 at half-time in that encounter.

This year's Dublin champions left Ardee with that same sinking feeling as Cuala scored the first 1-6 of the game and were 1-7 to 0-3 up at the interval.

Con O'Callaghan, one of three brothers in Cuala's lineup, treated Croke Park like his own personal playground at times, getting six shots away at Ardee's goals in the first 12 minutes alone despite the attentions of All-Star nominee Donal McKenny.

That translated into two points for O'Callaghan, a shot that slammed off the crossbar and three wides.

Con's brother, Niall, hit Naas for 1-5 in the quarter-final and added another cracking point as Cuala turned the screw in the opening quarter.

Ardee must have been shell shocked as a power packed Cuala, with former Dublin players Peadar O Cofaigh Byrne and Peter Duffy establishing a strong midfield platform, hit them hard and early.

Con was central to Cuala's 15th minute goal which left the south Dubliners 1-4 to 0-0 up at that stage.

The move for the goal started with a long Cuala kick-out that was caught beyond the half-way line and quickly played to Con who looked left and found Conor O'Brien who dispatched.

Cuala had 1-6 on the board before St Mary's got on the mark themselves and Con had a hand in 1-4 of that Cuala tally.

St Mary's didn't actually score from play at all in the first-half but did improve enough to win three frees before the break that Ciaran Keenan, Jonathan Commins and goalkeeper Tiernan Markey converted.

Keenan, the Louth attacker, was starting to prove troublesome and aside from the free he converted he also won the one that Markey curled over.

If the game was panning out upon the same lines as last year's Ardee/Crokes game, perhaps that wasn't the worst thing - for Ardee had a brilliant third quarter in that game.

They reeled off 1-5 without reply in that encounter to haul themselves back into it and, remarkably, did pretty much the same thing here, albeit in the final quarter of the game.

Those two Ardee goals turned what was a six-point deficit into a level game as the Louth men capitalised on the 46th minute sin-binning of Cuala defender Eoin Kennedy.

The sides were level three times in all in the closing minutes but when the need was greatest, Dublin great Fitzsimons won a free for Cuala and Keating held his nerve with the kick.

Scorers for Cuala: Conor O'Brien 1-1, Luke Keating 0-3 (2fs), Con O'Callaghan 0-4 (2fs), Niall O'Callaghan 0-2, Michael Fitzsimons 0-1, Eoin Kennedy 0-1, Charlie McMorrow 0-1, Cal Doran 0-1.

Scorers for Ardee St Mary's: Ryan Rooney 1-2, Sean Callaghan 1-0 Ciaran Keenan 0-3 (3fs), Jonathan Commins 0-2 (1f), Tiernan Markey 0-1 (f), Tadhg McDonnell 0-1, Daire McConnon 0-1.

Cuala: Ryan Scollard; Danny Conroy, Charlie McMorrow, Eoghan O'Callaghan; Eoin Kennedy, Michael Fitzsimons, David O'Dowd; Peadar O Cofaigh Byrne, Peter Duffy; Niall O'Callaghan, Cal Doran, Cillian Dunne; Luke Keating, Con O'Callaghan, Conor O'Brien.

Subs: Cathal O Giollain for Dunne 37, Michael Conroy for Danny Conroy 43, Conor Groarke for O'Brien 43, Shane Mangan for O'Dowd 57.

Ardee St Mary's: Tiernan Markey; Tadhg McDonnell, Karl Faulkner, Eimhin Keenan; Jonathan Commins, Donal McKenny, Paraic McKenny; RJ Callaghan, Sean Callaghan; Ciaran Keenan, Liam Jackson, Kian Moran; Shane Matthews, Daire McConnon, Tom Jackson.

Subs: Ronan Carroll for Matthews 43, Ryan Rooney for Moran 43, Carl Gillespie for Commins 53, Robert Leavy for RJ Callaghan 58.

Referee: Seamus Mulhare (Laois).