It was an emotional evening for many in Parnell Park last night.
The Dublin Hurlers, who have lived in the shadow of their football counterparts for so long, recorded their biggest win since 2013 - and a major victory this was.
They defeated a Galway side that started seven former All-Stars and brought on former player of the year and arguably one of the greatest talents ever; Joe Canning.
Goals from Eamonn Dillon, Seán Moran, and captain Chris Crummey proved crucial as they saw out the tie to win by four points on a score-line of 3-19 to 0-24.
With both Dublin and Galway finishing up the Leinster Championship with 5 points as well as Kilkenny and Wexford after their tie at Innovate Wexford Park the fate of the summer came down to scoring difference.
Brian Cody and Davy Fizgerald will meet again in two weeks time to contest the decider. Dublin though, were the winners of the evening - finishing 3rd and extending their summer into July, at least.
💙💙💙
What a night at Parnell Park pic.twitter.com/eFNl85c3hZ
— Dublin GAA (@DubGAAOfficial) June 15, 2019
Manager Mattie Kenny spoke afterward about how his side were sick of nearly winning and almost advancing and they wanted this campaign to be worth something.
"The belief was always in the squad but people outside the group didn't really believe in the guys...them narrow defeats they hurt so much, you have to put in place mechanisms to deal with the hurt, this group didn't want any more moral victories."
Doubts have certainly been put to bed now and although the Dubs may wake up this morning pinching themselves the win was definitely real.
The former Cuala boss, who guided the south-Dublin club to back-to-back All-Ireland's, added "If that game went up in a draw or Galway won by a point, everyone would say 'great game of hurling, Dublin are so unlucky', that's not the story that they want to hear and that's what drove them on in the last 10 minutes, when they dug really deep."
And it was the finish that was so impressive from Dublin. They held their nerve, didn't buckle to pressure and bow down to a team that has achieved so much more than them.
In fact, they outscored their opponents by 1-2 to 0-1 in the final five minutes - they clearly wanted this and were not sending the crowd home from Donnycarney thinking yet again what more they need to do.
The crowd swarmed the pitch at the full-time whistle rather than despondently filtering out the turnstiles, a feeling they had grown so accustomed to. They can instead look forward and they've plenty to be optimistic about.
"It's great for Dublin Hurling and great for this bunch of guys. Hopefully, we can grow and improve from now on" Kenny stated.
And that is what they'll aim to do as they prepare to face the winner of Laois and Westmeath's Joe McDonagh Cup final the first weekend of July.
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