Mayo man Austin O’Malley guides Cuala to Leinster title

LOUISBURGH native Austin O’Malley has guided Dublin side Cuala to a provincial title after they earned a dramatic 1-14 2-10 win over Ardee St Mary's of Louth. 

The former Mayo footballer’s side kept their supporters on edge until the dying minutes when veteran Luke Keating struck the winner as Cuala clinched their first-ever Leinster senior title. 

The Dalkey outfit also made history by winning their first-ever provincial hurling and football title. 

O’Malley’s men were made to sweat for their victory after they gave away a nine-point lead to go level with Ardee on three occasions. Losing Eoin Kennedy to a second-half black card also shifted the momentum in their opponents’ favour.

However, the Louth men never led, meaning that 35-year-old Luke Keating’s injury-time strike wrote his club’s name, and Austin O’Malley’s, into the annals of history. 

Speaking afterwards, O’Malley said his side showed ‘great spirit’ to hold on for the victory. 

“We’ve been through a lot of tight games. Even the county final game and the Naas game was quite tight so we have learned from that. It's a breakthrough year for us but I thought we learned a lot in those games and in our reviews we would be pretty tough on ourselves,” O’Malley told the Irish Independent.

“So it’s about learning and growing and a lot of our season is built on that from game to game so I thought that stood to us there. We had a lot of tough games under our skin where they have gone to the wire and we have had to hold out or wrestle momentum back so that probably served us well there, a little bit in the DNA at the end.”

It concludes a historic year for Cuala, who under O’Malley’s stewardship won their first-ever Dublin senior county title with a team featuring Dublin stars like Con O’Callaghan and Michael Fitzsimons.