Crokes out to finish the job after landmark Cuala win

THEY’VE downed the back-to-back AllIreland club champions but the job isn’t quite done yet.

Kilmacud Crokes head into their third Dublin senior hurling final on the bounce tomorrow.

Having lost the last two to Cuala, they took a big leap forward when overcoming their neighbours. It was hardly that much of a surprise given that just a goal separated them in the 2016 and 2017 finals.

“Mattie Kenny came into the dressingroom afterwards and told us there was only a puck of a ball between us the last couple of years and I think it was the same again this year, so the game went right down to the wire,” defender Rob Murphy recalled.

“So we always knew we had the belief to beat them. I suppose this year we just gotovertheline.

“They’ve set the standard for club hurling for Dublin clubs, probably gave the belief to Dublin clubs that we could win Leinsters and All-Irelands the past couple of years. So I suppose ourselves and ’Boden and the rest of the clubs in Dublin, we have to kind of emulate that now.”

Ballyboden-St Enda’s await in tomorrow’s final in Parnell Park.

Waves

When Dublin hurling was just starting to make waves, ’Boden were the kings of the club game, winning five county crowns in a row between 2007 and 2011.

They hinted at what was to come from the Dublin champions as they reached the Leinster final in 2007 – losing to Birr.

The club game kept progressing and in 2016 Cuala would eventually secure the county’s first Leinster title since Crumlin in 1979.

Ballyboden’s run of titles coincided with a notable power shift from the northside of the city to the south.

Before Ballyboden took over, Craobh Chiaráin and O’Tooles won nine titles between them from 1990 to 2006.

In the same period St Vincent’s won a title and appeared in another five deciders.

None of those clubs have contested a final since Ballyboden beat O’Tooles by 12 points in 2011.

Since then, Dublin hurling titles have been a southside affair with Crokes Ballyboden and Cuala carving it up between them.

Murphy reckons the club game has thrived in Dublin in recent years.

“Last year we got to a final, we scraped past Lucan, scraped past Na Fianna,” he offered.

“We beat Cuala this year, the AllIreland champions, ’Boden have beaten Cuala.

“There’s just so many clubs that on any given day, one club could beat the other. So I think the standard has really risen in recent years.”