The heroic injury time save from Con O’Callaghan that ended Cuala’s run

Niall McIntyre

Cuala will be back.

It takes a special team to win once, it takes a truly great team to win back to back. Over the last three years, Cuala won Dublin, Leinster and All-Ireland club titles for two years in a row.

This team’s winning streak came to an end on Sunday, when Anthony Daly’s Kilmacud Crokes defeated them 3-13 to 1-17 in the Dublin semi-final, but Mattie Kenny’s men went out on their sword.

Things couldn’t have gone much worse for Cuala for the majority of that game in Parnell Park. The first goal they conceded was a freak after a rare goalkeeping error from Sean Brennan.

Soon after, key man Darragh O’Connell was injured and another goal was put past them by the time the clock had struck 16. But every time Kilmacud looked like running away with this one, the men of south Dublin would do something to just keep themselves alive.

Congtatulations @KCrokesGAAClub good luck in the final.

— Cuala GAA (@CualaCLG) October 7, 2018

They’d call on the courage, the mental resolve and the resilience that has made them the team they are now.

The second half began in a similar vein when they conceded a goal straight from the throw-in to Kilmacud’s Damien Kelly. They were down by ten points at that stage but because this was Cuala you just knew the game wasn’t over yet.

And right on time, the Dalkey team came back. Men like Con O’Callaghan stood up and dragged the game back to south Dublin. Heroes like Sean Moran, Con O’Callaghan and Mark Schutte kept going.

Colm Cronin rallied and Sean Treacy went forward. And when David Treacy pointed to put a puck of the ball between the sides in the 60th minute, Cuala had all the momentum and they had every chance of snatching something from this one.

In the 63rd minute, the chance came. Cian O’Callaghan who’d scurried up from full back caught a David Treacy sideline and he laid on to the right man.

Con O’Callaghan, surrounded by at least ten Kilmacud bodies, found enough space to swing his hurley at it and he made a solid connection.

Then, with each and every Kilmacud heart in a mouth, heroic goalkeeper Matt Collins charged out towards him, throwing his body on the line before keeping the ball out with his head.

You can watch the save in better quality in the full highlights below from 5.55.

Kilmacud Crokes deserved their win. Ronan Hayes was class and so was Lorcan McMullen. Ryan O’Dwyer was a rock in defence as Anthony Daly masterminded another huge victory.

But you don’t know anything about Cuala if you don’t think they’ll be back.

You can watch the highlights of this game from Dublin GAA TV here.

Highlights