Cuala are All-Ireland football champions for the first time, in a game that we have seen for the last.
But if this was Gaelic football as it used to be, then it owes gratitude to the glowing eulogy delivered in Croke Park yesterday.
In the last All-Ireland senior final to be played under the current rules, Cuala and Errigal Ciaran paid heed to the time-honoured etiquette which demands you never speak ill of the dead.
Except they went one step further, they glorified its passing with the kind of breathless game of ball which inspired Jim Gavin and his fellow architects of football’s new way to rip it all up and start again.
They would not have needed to if every team approached it like this, but then circumstances dedicated as much.
CUALA ARE ALL-IRELAND FOOTBALL CHAMPIONS! 🏆🇦🇹
🏟️ HOMECOMING: Join us tonight at Cuala Hall, Hyde Road! Team walk from The Triangle at 8:00 pm, followed by a reception with Des Cahill at 8:00 - 8:30 pm.
Line the road to welcome the team! Cuala Abú! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/6BOZVKG6cZ
— Cuala GAA (@CualaCLG) January 19, 2025
The odd thing about it is that it has been a long time since a final witnessed two such one-sided halves as this.
Cuala ‘s scorching start left them 13 points to the good at half-time, while Errigal Ciaran’s second-half comeback went beyond the heroic as they whittled it down a three-point game at the death.
In the end, Con O’Callaghan, who joined the very exclusive club of dual All-Ireland winners, donned his superman cape to make a block at one end of the field as Errigal Ciaran had a high percentage shot at an equalising goal, before breaking through the lines at the other end to release substitute for Conor Groake to knock over the insurance score.
That the Dublin champions were in need of such a policy was laughable at the interval, at which stage they retired leading by 3-9 to 0-5.
There was a time when the capacity of Tyrone teams to melt the heads of opponents in big games at Croke Park spooked all before them, but in the opening half they were the ones left pale faced in terror by what horrors high intensity, high end football can visit on a team.
Of course, it can be argued that Jim Gavin’s blue tidal wave changed that dynamic in the first instance, but the truth is that no Tyrone team were brutalised in such a ruthless manner as Cuala did to them here for 30 minutes.
They simply overwhelmed them in every phase of the game, tackling, turn-overs, primary possession and finishing to the degree – and this might sound astonishing – that Errigal Ciaran were almost flattered by that 13-point deficit.
All of Cuala’s big guns were on song too, Michael Fitzsimons, who now has that much hyped 10th All-Ireland medal in his pocket, releasing Cal Doran with the quickest of hands, to draw the first blood as early as the 5th minute.
And if this was Peadar O’Cofaigh Byrne’s audition to fill Brian Fenton’s boots, then it could hardly have gone better.
He was a ball magnet around the middle, and spent his time Fenton-like rampaging forward with devastating effect, first to release David O’Dowd for Cuala’s second goal and then with a soccer style finish of his own to leave Cuala leading by 3-6 to 0-1 after 25 minutes.
That latter score was created by another King Con ground swallowing run on an afternoon when he would finish with 0-5.
And just when Errigal Ciaran thought things couldn’t get worse, they did when they lost their captain Darragh Canavan to concussion inside 22 minutes.
However, if there has been one constant in Cuala’s historic campaign, it has been a disturbing tendency to snooze on match winning leads, a trait evident in their county final victory over Kilmacud, Leinster final over Ardee and in seeing off Coolera Strandhill last time out.
But such was their margin here, it seemed that even if they lapsed into a coma it would not be fatal, but it so very nearly was.
In a way, it is unfair to suggest that Cuala’s bad habits inspired Errigal Ciaran’s fightback but what did happen is that free of the tension of getting a result and desperate to secure dignity, the Tyrone champions simply started to play for the hell of it.
Their veteran county star Peter Harte, who simply ran the second half, lit a fire under his team with such an outrageously finished goal within nine minutes of the restart that it is likely Croke Park will not see a better one in the remaining 11 months of this year.
At the very least, he deserved to be carried off on his shield rather than on the back of a straight red card, albeit a merited one, deep in injury time.
Cuala’s blood drained in the final quarter as Errigal – for whom the lesser celebrated Canavan, Tommy, also excelled – feasted on Ryan Scollard’s restarts to pin them in, to the point that the impossible seemed possible.
That was until King Con ruled otherwise.
📺 WATCH: FULL TIME HIGHLIGHTS 🚨
🔴⚪️ Cuala crowned Champions 👑@AIB_GAA #GAA Football Senior Club Championship@CualaCLG 3-14@ErrigalCiaran1 1-16#GAANOW brings you the best of the action 👇👇 pic.twitter.com/Ty6NqF1e4t
— The GAA (@officialgaa) January 19, 2025
Scorers for Cuala: C. O’Callaghan (0-5, 1 free, 1 45); P. Ó Cofaigh-Byrne, D. O’Dowd (1-1 each); C. Doran (1-0); L. Keating (0-3, 1 free); N. O’Callaghan (0-2); P. Duffy, C. Groarke (0-1 each).
Scorers for Errigal: Ciarán: T. Canavan (0-6, 4 frees); P. Harte (1-2); R. Canavan (0-3, 2 frees); J. Oguz, O. Robinson, C. McGinley, M. Kavanagh, P. McGirr (0-1 each).
Cuala: R Scollard; D Conroy (C. Ó Giolláin, 54), M Fitzsimons, E Kennedy; E O’Callaghan. D O’Dowd, C McMorrow; P Ó Cofaigh Byrne, P Duffy; C Dunne (M Conroy, 49), N O’Callaghan, C O’Callaghan, C O’Brien (C Groake, 42), L Keating.
Errigal Ciaran: D. McAnenly; Ciarán Quinn, A McCrory, Cormac Quinn; P. McCartan, T. Colhoun, N Kelly; B. McDonnell, J Oguz; C. McGinley (E Kelly, 48), T Canavan, P. Harte; O Robinson (P McGirr, 52), D. Canavan (M Kavanagh, 22), R Canavan
Referee: P Nelan (Roscommon)
Errigal Ciaran 1-16, 3-14 Cuala
*This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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