Na Fianna

Glasnevin club Na Fianna’s campaign started disastrously, as they went down to a 4-23 to 3-9 defeat to Ballyboden St Endas in the opening round of the 2025 championship.

Brian O’Leary was the standout performer for Na Fianna with his two first-half goals, as Boden led at the halfway stage. O’Leary would bag a hat-trick by the end of the game, finishing with an impressive personal tally of 3-2 in a heavy defeat for the Mobhi Rd men.

However, they would bounce back in style in their second championship outing of the year with a 5-18 to 0-19 win over St Vincents. Conor Baxter and Sean Caffrey bagged a brace each before Na Fianna grabbed another goal courtesy of David Lacey.

For the right to advance to the last eight, they were pushed all the way by Ballinteer St Johns, eventually winning by just a point, 1-16 to 1-15.

After a tight opening half, Balinteer’s Jack Lundy found the initiative to drive his team on, and they took the lead after he scored a penalty and a free in quick succession, which would build up the upcoming late drama nicely.

David Lacey and David Devereux did the business for Na Fianna and Ballinteer, with Devereux fisting over deep into injury-time- a score which looked set to put Ballinteer through and knock out Na Fianna.

However, Na Fianna would have the final say in this one when, after some excellent patient build-up, Killian Deeley stuck the ball between the posts in the 66th minute to win the game for the northsiders and see them progress to the quarter finals by the skin of their teeth.

Na Fianna’s ability to dig deep and win was once again demonstrated in their dramatic 1-18 to 1-17 comeback quarter-final win over Ballymun Kickhams.

They were trailing by eight at the break, when Cathal Tighe’s second-half goal for Ballymun looked to have put the game beyond Na Fianna.

But a converted penalty from Sexton was the lift he and his team-mates needed as they began their thrilling comeback.

Ciaran Reddin and goalkeeper O’Hanlon were more than useful in front of the posts throughout the game too.

And when push came to shove, Sexton scored a lovely two-pointer before a place in the last four was sealed when James Doran charged up the pitch and stuck the winning point to keep Tom Gray’s charges’ championship alive.

A third one-point win in a row came in their 3-11 to 1-16 semi-final win against Kilmacud Crokes.

Na Fianna’s David Quinn netted a penalty, while substitute Darragh Kennedy grabbed a second Na Fianna goal before a Crokes side- inspired by Shane Walsh- helped the south Dubliners to a 1-11 to 2-3 lead.

Quinn scored a second goal for himself and Na Fianna’s third after the break to bring his side back into contention for a final spot.

Crokes edged ahead again by the 52nd minute before Conor McHugh popped over two points in quick succession, and it was left to Reddin and their quarter-final hero and captain Doran to book a place in the Dublin decider with a last gasp winner.

Lightning struck twice as Doran delivered a match-winning point in injury-time to avenge the 2022 county final defeat to Crokes and give the Glasnevin club a chance to win a first senior football county title in 24 years on Saturday night.

 

Ballyboden St Endas

As mentioned, Ballyboden St Endas beat Na Fianna earlier in this championship and have since maintained their 100% record.

In that Na Fianna win, Darren O’Reilly, Daire Sweeney and James Holland set their side on the way to victory with three goals in the first-half. While Ryan O’Dwyer got a fourth goal for Ballyboden after half-time as he top scored with 1-6. Sweeney followed him with 1-5, and Colm Basquel was also on form in front of the posts with seven for himself.

Eamon O’Reilly’s side would score four goals for the second game in a row with a thumping 4-18 to 1-14 win over Ballinteer St Johns, as their blistering start to the campaign continued.

Sweeney and O’Dwyer stepped up for the side once more, scoring 2-9 and 2-2 respectively as the men in blue and white got the job done and took the top spot in Group 1.

Group 1 would be rounded off with a positive display against St Vincents, which saw the Firhouse Road club emerge 2-16 to 0-12 winners.

Peter Healy impressed, and O’Dwyer stepped up once again with five points to help his club win the group. Boden finished with a points difference of +40, scoring a massive 87 points throughout the group stage.

In the quarter-finals, the four-time champions went goalless for the first time as they squeezed by a plucky Casteknock 0-11 to 1-5 in tricky conditions at Parnell Park.

The first-half was a fairly dull encounter, but it came to life when Castleknock took a surprise lead just before the quarter-hour mark when Darragh Warnock burst the Ballyboden net, and Castleknock would hold a narrow one-point advantage at the break.

Ryan Basquel made a difference, but Ballyboden’s star man Sweeney kicked eight points to help his side into the semis.

Boden looked in trouble in their last four clash against Cuala, but a blistering last five minutes saw them dethrone the defending Dublin, Leinster and All-Ireland champions, eventually winning 3-21 to 2-22.

You have to beat the best of the best if you’re serious about becoming county champions. You also have to dig deep, and that’s exactly what they did, coming from behind to set up this weekend’s final.

Cuala led by seven points with four minutes on the clock remaining, but remarkably, it would be Boden advancing to the final.

Sweeney reduced the deficit to four with a well-taken goal before Ross McGarry and Calum O’Dwyer reduced the gap even further.

Sweeney would be the Ballyboden St Endas hero when he was given space to fire home, finishing with 2-8 and completing a stunning comeback.

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Match tickets for Saturday’s Final can be found by clicking here.

For those who can’t make it to Parnell Park on Saturday evening, the game will also be shown live on TG4.