{"id":180608,"date":"2025-12-08T06:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T06:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/180608\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T06:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T06:57:10","slug":"ballyboden-boss-hits-back-at-superclub-tag-after-dominant-leinster-final-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/180608\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballyboden Boss Hits Back At \u201cSuperclub\u201d Tag After Dominant Leinster Final Win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"245\" data-end=\"508\">Ballyboden St Enda\u2019s manager Eamon O\u2019Reilly has issued a firm defence of the club after guiding them to the All-Ireland semi-final, insisting the \u201csuperclub\u201d label ignores the people and the commitment that actually drive Dublin\u2019s biggest GAA communities.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"510\" data-end=\"875\">Fresh off an emphatic Leinster final victory over Athy, Ballyboden are now just one step away from an All-Ireland final, with the Cavan native&#8217;s side set to face either Dingle or St Finbarr\u2019s in early January. But while the focus is naturally turning to the national stage, the manager also took the opportunity to address criticism that large Dublin clubs too often face.<\/p>\n<p>Ballyboden Boss Hits Back At \u201cSuperclub\u201d Tag After Dominant Leinster Final Win<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"927\" data-end=\"1007\">Eamon O\u2019Reilly was emphatic that size alone doesn\u2019t win provincial titles, people do.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1011\" data-end=\"1368\">People talk about super clubs all the time. What makes a super club is super people and we&#8217;ve got super people right throughout the club.<br data-start=\"1163\" data-end=\"1166\"\/>There\u2019s all these negative connotations around big clubs in Dublin, but clubs here are massive communities. Ballyboden gives us identity in a huge city, and we\u2019re so grateful to be part of that.<\/p>\n<p>\n        Recommended\n    <\/p>\n<p>                        <a :href=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/gaa\/article.url\" :title=\"article.title\" :aria-label=\"article.title\" class=\"not-prose col-span-2 md:col-span-1 ga-event\" data-category=\"Recommended Article Tracker\" data-action=\"click\" :data-label=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/gaa\/article.url\" :data-value=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/gaa\/article.url\"><\/p>\n<p>                                            <img class=\"aspect-video\" width=\"130\" height=\"73\" :src=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/gaa\/article.image\" :alt=\"'Image for: ' + article.title\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                        <\/a><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1370\" data-end=\"1615\">The Firhouse Road outfit boasts almost 4,000 members, and O\u2019Reilly stressed that the scale reflects a community more than a talent factory. Far from being faceless or distant, he insists the heart of the club remains the same as any parish unit.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1676\" data-end=\"1858\">Eamon O\u2019Reilly highlighted the sacrifices that underline the players\u2019 commitment, none more striking than star man Ryan Basquel rearranging major life events around Ballyboden\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1862\" data-end=\"2132\">Ryan Basquel is getting married just before Christmas and had his stag last June so he\u2019d be fully free for championship.<br data-start=\"2007\" data-end=\"2010\"\/>We had a match the Tuesday after the stag, the lads came back early. That shows what type of individuals we have.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2134\" data-end=\"2301\">He added that whatever is asked of his players in the next three weeks they will do because they are fully bought into the journey they are on.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2358\" data-end=\"2546\">The Ballyboden manager confirmed he will be in Thurles on Sunday to watch Dingle meet St Finbarr\u2019s in the Munster final, a clash that will determine their All-Ireland semi-final opponent.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2550\" data-end=\"2790\">Dingle and Finbarr\u2019s are two unbelievably solid clubs.<br data-start=\"2619\" data-end=\"2622\"\/>Finbarr\u2019s have the history. Dingle have serious footballers. Whoever wins, it\u2019ll be a massive challenge. We haven\u2019t earned the right to talk about All-Irelands.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2792\" data-end=\"2925\">For now, Ballyboden are exactly where they want to be, Leinster champions again and ready to make the the next step.<\/p>\n<p>SEE ALSO: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/gaa\/tyrone-feargal-logan-health-jurgen-klopp-645649\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tyrone Great Feargal Logan Lives By Jurgen Klopp Mantra After Health Scare<\/a><br \/>\nSEE ALSO: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/gaa\/james-horan-gaa-rule-frc-issue-645646\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">James Horan Admits One GAA Rule Has Split Opinion Among FRC Members<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ballyboden St Enda\u2019s manager Eamon O\u2019Reilly has issued a firm defence of the club after guiding them to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[98259,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-180608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ballyboden","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}