Bourke had a flight to Australia on Sunday, but if Tullamore had overcome Ballyboden St Enda\u2019s in Saturday\u2019s Leinster club SFC semi-final he would have delayed his trip until after the provincial decider.<\/p>\n
The Leinster club final will take place at Croke Park on Saturday, and Bourke was committed to sticking around if the Offaly champions had managed to progress to the decider for the first time.<\/p>\n
As it turned out, Ballyboden proved too strong at O\u2019Connor Park last weekend \u2013 running out 2-19 to 0-10 victors.<\/p>\n
Bourke has nothing but appreciation for all the Tullamore club has given him over the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have been [playing next weekend], yeah, definitely,\u201d says Bourke. \u201cI would have stayed on and played, I owe everything to this club, they brought me up since I was four years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I go out there, I try and leave everything on the field. I\u2019d do anything for those lads in the dressingroom, we\u2019re all brothers in arms. We all stick together and hopefully I look forward to seeing them in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is clear the affection between player and club flows both ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players, supporters and club executive would like to wish Cillian Bourke the very best of luck as he heads off to begin his next chapter in Australia, with the Essendon Bombers in the AFL,\u201d stated Tullamore GAA.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are immensely proud of everything he has achieved so far, both on and off the field. An outstanding talent and a credit to his club, family and community. Enjoy every minute of the experience, Cillian \u2013 opportunities like this are earned, not given, and you\u2019ve more than earned yours.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look forward to seeing you again in the not too distant future back in the blue jersey. Up the Bombers.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Kildare's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PLX26VKAHJAT7N36RHVXGXJJGI.jpg\")
Kildare’s Mick O’Grady and Cillian Bourke of Offaly. Photograph: Bryan Keane\/Inpho <\/p>\n
Bourke\u2019s absence will be a blow to Tullamore\u2019s four-in-a-row county title ambitions next season but Offaly joint managers Mickey Harte and Declan Kelly will also have to plan without one of the Faithful\u2019s most promising prospects.<\/p>\n
Offaly will be competing in Division Two of the National Football League next year. They will face neighbours Laois in the first round of the 2026 Leinster senior football championship, with the winners facing Kildare in a quarter-final.<\/p>\n
Bourke is on course to become the first male player from Offaly to play AFL. Essendon have had several Irish players on their books over the years \u2013 most notably Tyrone\u2019s Conor McKenna, Longford\u2019s Mickey Quinn and Meath\u2019s Cian McBride.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a whole new sport so it\u2019s back to Ground Zero,\u201d adds Bourke. \u201cDefinitely looking forward to it. I suppose it\u2019s going to take a few days to settle with jet lag and that but I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll be hectic all the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be nice to be a professional athlete and just focus on one thing and try to do the best I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bourke was instrumental in Tullamore\u2019s mini revival at the start of the second half last Saturday at O\u2019Connor Park. The home side trailed Ballyboden by 14 points at the break but staged a strong surge after the break to score six points without reply.<\/p>\n
However, Ballyboden eventually broke the siege and ultimately regained control of the contest to win comfortably by the final whistle.<\/p>\n
It was a disappointing result for Tullamore, especially after last year\u2019s close battle with Cuala in Parnell Park. The Dublin champions edged the Leinster semi-final 1-10 to 0-10 last November, so Tullamore were hoping to build on that display when Ballyboden arrived to O\u2019Connor Park last weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey really put us on the back foot in the first half, we probably weren\u2019t used to that in the Offaly championship or in the Downs game last time out,\u201d says Bourke.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it\u2019s probably something to take a look back on and prep for next year and try get back to this position again next year. I suppose the Dublin champions are the ones to beat every year and we\u2019ve fallen short in the last two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, there\u2019s still hope for the coming years, we\u2019re a young team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cillian Bourke says he owes everything to his Tullamore \u201cbrothers in arms\u201d as he sets out on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,180719,180718,85],"class_list":["post-320740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-gaa-club-football-championship","tag-offaly-gaa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}