When Skerries Harps and All-Ireland winning captain, Bryan Cullen, first appeared on the pitch for Dublin in 2003, Castleknock were only five years in existence. Now they have qualified for the last four of the Dublin SFC in only their second year playing senior football. On Wednesday night, they beat Skerries 2-14 to 0-10.
Without a doubt, Castleknock are a club going from strength to strength having won the Intermediate and Junior Championships in 2014 and 2012 respectively. It is testament to the fact as to what hard work and dedication can achieve - both on and off the pitch.
A dominant display by Graham Hannigan gave Castleknock a grip of the game which they failed to loosen.
It was Hannigan who was instrumental in the build up to Shane Boland's goal. (See below - 2:14)
While Skerries Harps ran Castleknock close in the closing stages of the first half. However, Harps struggled to keep up with the quick breakaway attacks in the final 15 minutes of the game as Kilkenny, Carlos and Galvin (goal 8:55) got scores in quick succession.
Ciaran Kilkenny, spoke highly of his club at the beginning of the club championship.
"It's great to see that younger teams are doing well and there's another crop coming through...the future's bright for our club. Hopefully we just keep going now."
Whether or not the Dublin forward believed his club would still be competing deep into October is unknown. But one thing is for certain; In the coming years we can expect Castleknock to be stalwarts in the final stages of the Dublin Senior Championship.
