Kilmacud Crokes ease to Dublin SHC win that crushes Cuala’s double dream

Kilmacud Crokes eased to an eighth Dublin senior hurling title at Parnell Park on Saturday night with an 11-point victory that crushed Cuala’s dreams of claiming a maiden county double.

The much anticipated battle of the southsiders proved to be a tepid affair on a wet and windy night at the northside venue with Crokes leading from the opening minute until the long whistle.

The Stillorgan outfit played with the storm at their back in the opening half and led 1-11 to 0-6 at the turnaround, Ronan Hayes netting an early goal.

Given the strength of the wind, it would have been natural if some of the chatter among supporters during the interval wondered if an eight-point lead was a wide enough gap. It was, and then some.

When Oisín O’Rorke scored a second Crokes goal eight minutes after the resumption to put them 2-11 to 0-8 in the ascendancy, there was only going to be one winner.

Cuala, whose senior footballers had triumphed in the big-ball final last weekend, just never got going here. They were flat from the get-go. The Dalkey side managed to score just six points in each half and only 0-4 of that was from play. You don’t win county finals with those numbers.

Crokes now move joint fourth in the roll of honour alongside Cuala, O’Tooles and UCD.

Paddy Linehan’s side attacked the game from the throw-in and the impressive Brian Hayes had a point on the board after only 30 seconds.

With the wind at their back they immediately set about using it to their advantage – smacking over three points in the opening two minutes.

Cuala possibly felt they had stemmed the early purple and gold tsunami when Donal O’Shea tapped over a free in the third minute.

But from the resulting puckout, the booming clearance by Eddie Gibbons was carried by the wind downfield and caused panic in the Cuala defence. When the ball broke out from within a ruck of bodies, Ronan Hayes was on hand to strike the loose ball first-time with a groundstroke that sent it beyond Seán Brennan, 1-3 to 0-1.

Cuala struggled to get their inside line on the ball and their only score from play in the entire first half only arrived from Jamie Conroy one minute before the interval.

They had already taken on plenty of water by that stage and trailed by 10 – as scores by Ronan Hayes, Finnian Donohoe, Dara Purcell and Fergal Whitely put Crokes in a strong position.

Cuala needed to start the second half strongly and they did register the first two scores after the break, from O’Shea and Liam Murphy. But there was to be no heroic comeback.

Brian Hayes picked out O’Rorke with a wonderfully arrowed pass in the 38^th minute and the team captain made no mistake with his finish to put them nine ahead. Cuala were done. There would be no double.

It is Kilmacud’s first Dublin SHC triumph since 2022. They will play Mount Leinster Rangers in a Leinster club quarter-final on November 8th.

KILMACUD CROKES: Eddie Gibbons; Ben Lynch, Brian Sheehy, David Lucey; Conal Ó Riain (0-3), Mark Grogan, Cian Ó Cathasaigh; Brian Hayes (0-1), Caolan Conway; Fergal Whitely (0-2), Brendan Kenny, Finnian Donohoe (0-3); Alex Considine (0-1), Ronan Hayes (1-6, 3f), Dara Purcell (0-1). Subs: Oisín O’Rorke (1-0) for Kenny (ht); Ger Veale for Donohoe (49 mins); Padhraic Linehan for Conway (53); Seán Purcell for Considine (58)

CUALA: Seán Brennan; Eoghan O’Callaghan, Cian O’Callaghan, Conor Groarke (0-1); Seán Moran, Aodhán English, Diarmuid Ó Floinn; Donal O’Shea (0-4, 3f), Jake Malone; Jamie Conroy (0-1), Cillian Sheanon, George O’Toole; Conall O’Toole, Colm Cronin, Liam Murphy (0-5, 5f). Subs: Kevin Kirwan (0-1) for Sheanon (38 mins); Stephen Roche for Malone (49); David Treacy for C O’Toole (55); Jack Twomey for Cronin (56); Adam Sheeran for C O’Callaghan (62)

REFEREE: Seán Stack (Pobal Parnell)