Shane Cunningham: Kilmacud Crokes a different type of community club

Kilmacud Crokes' story will never be that of the outsider.

But that wasn't always the case. In Peter Sobolewski's excellent book on the history of the club he writes that "its beginnings were modest" as the city stretched out into the suburbs.

It's fair to say that the current Crokes club would be unrecognisable from the Kilmacud GAA club founded at a meeting in St Laurence's Hall in February 1959.

Joined with Clonskeagh club Benburbs in 1972, the club continued to grow and they've now become mammoth in size with their website claiming they have just shy of 5,000 members. Crokes have been the victims of their own success, in one regard, with a superbly run club attracting players from beyond the original parishes of Kilmacud and Mount Merrion, and later Clonskeagh.

You could probably make the argument that splitting the club in two would leave you with two strong senior sides in the area that could go far in the Dublin SFC.

With all that in mind there might not be many neutrals backing them in Croke Park on Sunday as they seek their third AIB All-Ireland club football title.

And while club captain Shane Cunningham acknowledges the size of the club, he doesn't agree that it makes it any less of a community club than Sunday's opponents Watty Graham's Glen, who have around 800 members.

"It does get dismissed as a 'super club' and that undermines some of the hard work that's being done from the coaches, and the volunteers to people right throughout, " Cunningham points out.

"It's more than just a GAA club, there's other clubs within the club that make it a community hub so I don't think people really understand the Crokes community spirit until they're involved in it themselves.

"It is different to your small rural club in that,