Cuala have risen to the top after challenging years
Semi Leinster Football Parnell Senior 23/11/2024 Gaa Final, Park, Club Dublin Championship
Cursed? Luke Keating wouldn't go that far but it did feel for a while like something, or someone, was conspiring against Cuala.
Take 2017, for example, when the senior footballers went as far as the club had ever done in the Championship and contested a quarter-final.
They were promptly relegated for 2018. Why? Because a new look SFC 2 tier was coming in and results from previous years were used to decide on rankings.
Cuala resolved to play their way out of that sticky situation and duly won the SFC 2 championship in 2020 but the pandemic meant promotion was parked for that year.
Attacker Keating, an All-Ireland U-21 finalist with Dublin in 2010, wondered if time was simply going to run out on his dream of winning a senior championship.
"I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a massive challenge and at that stage a core group of players was ticking to the wrong side of 30 so we'd been on the road a long time," said Keating.
"The relegation one really hurt. We felt like we had built something over the previous four years and then we were told 'you're relegated' and there were teams that probably hadn't won a game in a long time and they were kept up because it was a five-year points system so it was quite a challenge."
It's been one of those all's well that ends well stories for Cuala because they won the SFC 2 championship in 2021, appointed former Mayo and Wicklow forward Austin O'Malley manager for 2022 and have skyrocketed under his watch since.
There were Dublin quarter-final appearances in 2022 and 2023 before this year's breakthrough county success, the club's first ever. They're favourites now to cap a brilliant year with a Leinster title.
Speaking of the favourites tag, Cuala were saddled with that for both Leinster and the All-Ireland as soon as they came out of Dublin.
"I think I laughed, I couldn't believe it," said Keating. "Before this year we had never got through a quarter-final in Dublin!"
But they shouldered the burden well and showed silk, against Naas, and steel, against Tullamore, to reach this evening's decider.
"We're open to having to do different things to win different games," said Keating. "And we're under no illusions about the challenge again this time."