Michael Fitzsimons cruel heartbreak with Cuala turns to Dublin Championship joy

Michael Fitzsimons has hailed Cuala’s “phenomenal” Dublin senior football championship breakthrough.

The nine-time Dublin All-Ireland winner was immense for the Dalkey based side as they overcame four-in-a-row chasing Kilmacud Crokes at Parnell Park on Sunday.

Cuala showed massive character to overcome the double whammy of conceding a goal on 55 minutes to tie up the game and Con O’Callaghan’s red card in the aftermath of the Kilmacud major.

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They forged ahead again and were pegged back before defender Eoin Kennedy fisted over the winner three minutes into stoppage time.

It was their sixth fisted point out of 14 as they adapted well to the horrendous breeze, and their ninth different scorer, showing the class and composure they had across the team with young centre half back Charlie McMorrow looking like a player with a big future.

Fitzsimons - a three-time All Star - hailed the victory saying it was “As sweet as any.”

“Just, we done so well,” said the 35 year old. “Everything we planned came to fruition. We probably had a goal chance and then got caught on the counter. Little bit sloppy and it was a great goal by Luke Ward.

“The wind was so volatile - bizarre. But it probably favoured Crokes in the second half. We were like, Jeez this is an uphill battle. We wanted to get into the lead again.

“Then to get caught on a transition out of defence. It was heartbreaking stuff. It was nearly cruel. You thought you had it and then it was getting taken away from you.”

Cuala GAA has 3200 members and serves an area which includes Blackrock, Dun Laoghaire, Shankhill and Monkstown. The club was formed when Dalkey Mitchels and Cuala Casements joined in 1974.

Up to now their biggest successes have been on the hurling field as they landed back to back All-Ireland titles 2017/18 and eight Dublin Senior Hurling Championships.

They’ve had and continue to have some big name sponsors in the shape of companies like Amgen (biotech), Davy (stockbrokers) and Huawei (electronics).

With just one pitch at their home grounds, they face considerable logistical challenges and have to hire out training facilities, including the astro at Bray Emmets for training. But years of planning and hard work came to fruition at the weekend.

Fitzsimons was reluctant to start naming the mentors in the club who had helped them on the way up but he pointed to the three intermediate finals and three Senior B deciders they’d played in to get to where they are today.

And he felt one of the big factors in the weekend triumph was not getting too bogged down on what 2023 All-Ireland champions Kilmacud Crokes were going to do.

“Crokes were going for four in a row and had new players coming in this year," said Fitzsimons. "They were obviously so strong. Teams have been caught worrying about them. We’ve seen other teams get caught maybe by that.

“We saw ‘Boden (Ballyboden) and (Thomas) Davis put it right up to them. We just wanted to go out and play the same football we’ve been playing.

“We probably had a lot of lads who were playing in their first final. You’re kind of worrying, are they going to get a bit nervous but none of them showed it.

“Austy (O’Malley - manager) was really good at keeping us nice and calm and we went out and played our football. If we had lost, at least we would have been able to look back and say we stuck to our principles.”

Fitzsimons was an inspirational figure throughout, striding forward to slot over two points, one where he hand passed over an opponent’s head before collecting the ball and fisting the score.

“It was Manno (Paul Mannion) I think I got,” he continued. “Then he tried to get me later on. I used to do that at underage.

“I got one in 2019 (for Dublin). People told me to stop doing it. I got turned over one year so it’s terrible when you get turned over.

“It was effective. I think we’ve been very good at working to get into positions like that. When I got there, people were encouraging me to put it over on both occasions so you kind of need that when you’re a corner back.

“Your spatial awareness isn’t as good when you’re up front. It’s not something you’ve practiced all the time.

“They’re (Crokes) a great team. Very humble in defeat. Craig Dias, Manno, Rory (O’Carroll). All those lads. They’ve had such great achievements. We’re just delighted to have won a Dublin Championship.”

Fitzsimons won an All-Ireland junior title with Dublin in 2008 before graduating to the senior ranks and going on to mark Colm Cooper in the 2011 All-Ireland final victory over Kerry.

His stellar career was a slow burner early on, and he wasn't alway a regular under Jim Gavin, but not as slow as his club's rise has proved to be.

“Dublin, when you get in, it’s something you’ve probably thought about as a child," he continued.

“This (Dublin Senior Championship) is something you’ve been thinking about since you were 18. You’ve probably been thinking about making an impact on the adult stage when we were 14 or 15.

“We were one of the Cuala teams that were Division 1. We were probably one of the first teams. The year above us were very good as well. The ‘87s. We had just great coaching.”

Fitzsimons continued: “We just had so many people who put time into us. We were spoiled. We would have gone down playing Buffer’s Alley because hurling wasn’t great in Dublin. They brought us everywhere.

“The same with football. We were down to Kerry at minor. We had Marc Ó Sé and Eoin Brosnan – they were down chatting to us at minor. They invested so much time into us as a group.”

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