But will Ballyboden improve on last year?

Cuala were beaten by Ballyboden St Enda's in the first round of Dublin Senior Hurling Championship 2017 and Boden made it two wins in two years over the county's kingpins on Wednesday night. Through it all, you'd have to wonder how this Cuala team keeps on coming back for more. They won the All-Ireland senior hurling championship when they defeated Na Piarsaigh in a replay on March 24, and they were back out again just 13 days later in the following year's county championship. For the second year in a row. It's hardly surprising that they're prone to a little slip-up in Dublin, but crucially, Mattie Kenny's men are still standing. Despite Wednesday night's seven point, 1-18 to 0-14 defeat at the hands of the 2013 county champions, the men of south county Dublin are still preparing for a quarter final date. So too are Ballyboden who look a different animal this year to the team that lost the quarter final to Lucan in 2017. Sharpshooter Paul Ryan is firing on all cylinders for them while Niall McMorrow is also hurling well on the top of the right. Simon Lambert and Shane Durkin in the half back line are the platform from which the rest of the team build and they'll be hard beaten down the home stretch of this championship. At 4/1, they're certainly worth a few quid. https://twitter.com/DubMatchTracker/status/1037417219976835072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1037417219976835072%7Ctwgr%5E373939313b73706563696669635f73706f7274735f616374696f6e&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.the42.ie%2Fcuala-dublin-shc-ballyboden-st-endas-parnell-park-4221147-Sep2018%2F As for Cuala, this beating isn't terminal but it will come as a bit of a wake-up call. 13 of the players that played in last year's All-Ireland final were playing for them, so an eight point defeat like this won't be taken too lightly. They were minus the services of key man Con O'Callaghan though who's out in Poland with his Dublin teammates on what has to be the most hard earned holiday of all time at the moment.

He'll be back for the quarters and the whole team will come on for his improvement tenfold. That was part of a double header in Parnell Park where Craobh Chiarain took on St Brigid's in the curtain raiser. Craobh eventually won out 3-14 to 2-12 but neither of those teams had a chance of advancing to the quarters anyway.