Luke Keating relishing the journey as Cuala target more history

In their last two games early goals have proven crucial in settling first-time Dublin champions Cuala in their journey into the heart of the Leinster championship.

Luke Keating struck early to lay down a gauntlet against Naas in front of a packed Cedral St Conleth's Park two weeks ago.

And last Saturday night under lights at Parnell Park, Peter Duffy struck the killer early goal that ultimately separated themselves and Tullamore to send the team into their first AIB Leinster senior football final at Croke Park on Saturday evening.

It’s an adventure they have worked long and hard to navigate.

"I am loving it, we all are," Luke Keating says of the team’s 2024 success.

"Some of us have been on the go a long time and we have had some difficult days, so it has been a long time coming. The leap up the grades has involved a lot of work over a long period.

"We won the Dublin intermediate title in 2012 and a core group has been working hard since then to get to win a senior title.

"It took a lot for everything to align – a management team that shared our vision of how the game should be played, a club section that backs you, a football section that backs you and then the emergence of the younger players which we needed.

"So, it has been the perfect storm this year.

"In the last three years we have had that management team and that group of players.

"A former dual player himself, Keating knows how hard it has been for the club to keep challenging on all fronts.

They leaped into the mainstream primarily as a hurling force, winning back-to-back All-Irelands.

Now they are intent on creating more history.

"I played hurling until 2012, and I am always a huge supporter of Cuala being a GAA club first and foremost. There is room for all of us, the