“There’s a great community feel around the club- it’s what draws you to the GAA” Michael Fitzsimons

By Paul Keane 

Back when Cuala were still plotting an intermediate football championship breakthrough, Mick Fitzsimons recalls talking about the club's longer-term targets.

"I remember we had a meeting and we were saying our goal should be to win a senior championship," said the ultra experienced defender, now on the verge of realising that ambition.

The thing is, that was all of 15 years ago and the decorated Dublin player hadn't envisaged it taking quite so long to get their chance in a top tier final.

There were plenty of pitfalls and challenges along the way, like losing a couple of intermediate finals in 2010 and 2011 before making it third time lucky in 2012.

There was a spell then in the SFC 2 ranks between 2018 and 2021 and it hasn't been until the last couple of years that they've really started driving towards their target of contesting a senior decider.

Austin O'Malley, the former Mayo and Wicklow forward, has proven an astute manager, guiding the team to back-to-back quarter-final appearances in 2022 and 2023 before moving things on a step in 2024.

Five wins on the trot, including knock-out victories over Castleknock and Ballymun Kickhams, has propelled Cuala through to Sunday's Go-Ahead SFC final against Kilmacud Crokes at Parnell Park.

"It's probably taken longer than we would have liked," said Fitzsimons of finally making it to a county senior final. "We've had ups and downs, being in Senior B, the championship format changing, the Covid year as well. We've improved little by little. We've been slowly coming together as a group.

"We've had ins and outs, lads going abroad, coming back, bits and pieces like that. But the core stuck together and we've had good support."

The last time Cuala reached a Dublin senior football final was in 1988. In more recent years the club has become a byword for hurling excellence, collecting five county SHC titles between 2015 and 2020, two Leinster titles and, remarkably, back-to-back All-Irelands in 2017 and 2018.

Around that same time, Fitzsimons was at the centre of a history-making Dublin football team but never let his focus shift too far from helping the Cuala footballers realise their ambitions too.

"I think we've been conscious of that, of staying in touch with the team," said Fitzsimons of Cuala's county players. "You build that bond, which is important. But it always helps, from a club perspective, when Dublin get knocked out early and we have a bit more time then preparing with the club. You get embedded a bit better."

It may not be coincidence that Cuala's breakthrough this season has come after Dublin's relatively early exit from the All-Ireland race, at the quarter-final stage. Fitzsimons and Cuala colleague Con O'Callaghan started all seven of Dublin's Championship games and returned to the club in strong form.

King Con struck eight points last time out in Cuala's impressive semi-final defeat of Ballymun Kickhams.

Dual player O'Callaghan was a key figure during the club's golden period of hurling success too so has some experience of the pre-final excitement and buzz around the club.

"There is a great community feel around the club," said Fitzsimons. "You could see that with the hurlers when they were on their run. But it's like that the whole time really. That's what kind of draws you to the GAA.

"I would have played soccer underage but when you see the warmth and the connection, and people really giving their time and volunteering, which is sort of the core of the GAA growing up, it's incredible really. I felt that growing up in Cuala."

Kilmacud Crokes' Glenalbyn base in Stillorgan is only seven kilometres or so away from Cuala but Fitzsimons said there isn't any particular local rivalry at play. They've met sparingly over the years in the senior championship, Crokes defeating Cuala by 0-14 to 1-9 in a rare meeting two years ago at the county quarter-final stage.

It may bode well for Cuala that when a number of the current players from both teams met in a county U-21 final in 2009, the Dalkey side won by 2-7 to 0-6. Fitzsimons, fresh off an All-Ireland win with the Dublin juniors in 2008, was full-back for that O'Toole Park encounter, while current attacker Luke Keating played too. Meanwhile, Crokes had the likes of Rory O'Carroll and Craig Dias involved.

"I remember they had Kevin Nolan, Cian O'Sullivan, Barry O'Rorke, it was a who's who of Dublin underage players," said Fitzsimons. "We would have known eachother from school as well, so there is an overlap there. Everyone gets on quite well so it's a healthy rivalry. But at senior level we've only played them once I think."

At some point, Fitzsimons will have a decision to make about his inter-county future. He was a key figure in Dessie Farrell's setup this year, collecting another Leinster medal, but is still weighing things up.

"Once the club season comes about, you're just focusing on that," he said, content to leave the Sky Blues question for another day.