Scenes on toast.
Trailing Round Towers by two points, and with the clock ticking towards 62 minutes, Barry Cushen, and the whole of Scoil Uí Chonaill GAA club thought their dreams of a fifth promotion in Dublin club hurling in seven years were gone with the wind.
That’s when they were awarded a free, approximately 30 yards out from the goals in the Monastery Road Clondalkin pitch.
A chance, but a slim one at that. Their opponents, as you would expect, put 12 men between the sliotar and the net to ensure the O’Neill’s size five wouldn’t end up passing the line.
Cushen, the side’s trusted free-taker, asked the referee what was left in the game. The man in the middle replied, “this is the last puck of the game.”
It was shit or bust. It was a goal or nothing.
From Con O'Callaghan to Cavan junior ladies club. From Amy Dowling to Scoil Uí Chonaill https://t.co/3aCPx2Cp4V
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) November 21, 2017
Standing over the ball, Cushen had the weight of a parish on his shoulders, the hopes of Clontarf in his wrists and the dreams of his teammates in the grains of his 34-inch hurl.
He’s a laid-back character, though. It didn’t faze him. He had already notched six points in the game. His free-taking had been solid, his dander was up and he was quietly confident.
“I just saw a gap between the goalkeeper and corner back, and I said I’d try bounce it between them,” he told SportsJOE.
“I never hit a ball so well in my life, and thankfully it went in.
“I think I’ve watched the video more than 100 times now.”
The 21-year-old continued.
“The players or management on the line didn’t realise it was the last puck to they didn’t know why we went running all over the pitch throwing our hurls and helmets off,” he added.
You can watch that same video right here. The famous free is at 1:58. The scenes begin straight away, and they’re still ongoing.
Video credit: Creative House Designs.
The side have made remarkable progress since 2011, when he readily admits, they were at a bit of a crossroads.
“This club has made some serious progress since 2011, when we were going nowhere only backwards,” he said.
They’ve stuck together. There’s a great team bond in Scoil, they may win, they may lose, but it’s one in all in. That parochial atmosphere goes a long way in Dublin, where it might not be as strong in other clubs.
What a day for @ScoilCLG and @barrycushenx #ahl2 #scoilaregoingup pic.twitter.com/dJsL8xYbrN
— R M (@murph_ro) November 19, 2017
“We’ve a special group, we’re in the middle of a massive city with bigger clubs all around us, but we play with a parish mentality, and by God it was sweet to win it. The celebrations, they were even sweeter. Let’s just say there was a lot of lads taking Monday and Tuesday off work. For the younger lads, college wasn’t attended too well either,” he added.
It was an extra special day for the Cushen family, with Barry’s father the team manager. His mother is also heavily involved in the club, and his brother and sister were there supporting.
“My father runs the team, so it means everything to us. My mother is also massively involved with the club, so it was very special,” added the DCU student.
Scoil Uí Chonaill are a club on the rise. This rise is showing no signs of stopping any time soon.
“Next year we’ll have 9 lads playing senior hurling and football, which is a real tribute to the work put in.
“We’ve had five promotions in the last seven years between League and Championship. We were Junior B in 2013, we won division 5. We won a division 3 play-off in 2015, and this year we went up to divison two, or second division senior league.
“To put it into perspective, there’s three lads on our panel who weren’t born when the club was last in division 2,” he concluded.
That’s where they are now.
