CUALA CRUISE
Schutte’s men prove far too powerful for Kilkenny champions
CUALA CAPTAIN Paul Schutte spoke ahead of this AIB Leinster Club Hurling Championship encounter of how getting out of Dublin is becoming the tricky part.
It might have smacked of arrogance if the statistics didn’t back up his argument.
All-Ireland club title holders Cuala were at their ease here, beating the Kilkenny champions — typically the team that everyone else fears in Leinster — by seven points and cruising through to a November 19 semi-final against Wexford’s St Martin’s.
Compare that to the Dublin Championship in which they battled their way through in recent weeks with three, six, and twopoint wins over Kilmacud Crokes, St Vincent’s and St Brigid’s and you get Schutte’s point.
As if to sum up the changing times on the Leinster club scene, even Dicksboro manager Mark Dowling admitted afterwards that there was ‘no shame’ in losing to Cuala.
That’s not something you’re ever likely to hear from Brian Cody, that Dublin teams set the agenda these days, but it appears to be the new reality at club level.
Mattie Kenny’s Cuala only won their first Leinster title last year, just the second by any Dublin club, but look a serious team, hungry for more.
Con O’Callaghan, their dual star at full-forward, displayed that appetite for destruction with a classy performance that yielded 1-3. In total, the Dublin football sensation had a hand in 2-8 of the team’s tally.
O’Callaghan only picked up his first football All Star award on Friday night and was also named Young Player of the Year.
He is the reigning Leinster club Hurler of the Year too, scoring 6-10 in last year’s competition, and went through three different Dicksboro markers over the hour or so here.
One of those was Cillian Buckley, the experienced Kilkenny defender, who had to be forsaken at centre-back to fire-fight at full-back.
Neither Buckley nor Evan Cody nor Robbie Fitzpatrick could shackle him and by the 16th minute O’Callaghan had scored a point, fired a goal chance just wide and helped to create the game’s opening goal for Jake Malone after a brilliant run up the right.
Cuala led 1-4 to 0-2 at that early stage and were always at least four points ahead from there on despite being without Mark Schutte.
Cuala manager Mattie Kenny was mindful about heaping too much praise on O’Callaghan and was more outspoken about suggestions that his team might be tired or lack hunger facing into another Leinster campaign.
‘I’ve been asked that question a number of times and I can’t really understand it,’ said Kenny. ‘Cuala, as a club, had hurling success 23 or 24 years ago. Now, in the last three years, we’re finding ourselves in a position where we’ve won three county titles. Our time has come and now that it’s here we’ve got to take advantage as much as possible.
‘While the opportunity is there for us, we need to push on and try to achieve as much as we can.’
Kenny said he didn’t know if Mark Schutte would be back for that game. Dublin football manager Jim Gavin can’t have been too happy to learn of the injury either given that he recruited Schutte earlier this year, putting him on in the Championship against Carlow.
‘It’s a lingering injury, he picked it up at some stage in August,’ said Kenny. ‘It’s not getting any better so we just had to make the decision to give it a chance to rehab.’
Powerful Schutte’s absence wasn’t felt in front of around 3,000 at the Donneycarney venue and Nicky Kenny, who replaced him, scored two fine points.
Dicksboro improved in the second quarter, sharing 12 points evenly with Cuala in that period to leave the hosts 1-10 to 0-8 up at half-time.
Robbie Murphy pointed for Dicksboro after the restart, reducing the margin to four but four Cuala points followed and then O’Callaghan’s 45th-minute goal which all but sealed the win.
Ironically, of all the special moments he produced in the game, this was the most routine of goals, pucked in from closerange after good work down the left by Kenny, Sean Treacy and Malone.
Dicksboro served up a late rally and substitute Stephen Farrell sniped a 57th-minute goal but they didn’t get any closer than five points late on.
‘It’s the fifth of November and it’s the first losing dressing-room that I’ve walked into all year,’ said Dicksboro manager Dowling. ‘I would just say that, physically, Cuala’s strength and conditioning was a step ahead of ourselves. They’re on the road a lot longer than us.’