Boden seniors clinch Division One title

BALLYBODEN St Enda’s have won the Division One AFL title this past weekend after a very close game at home to Ballymun Kickhams.

The match finished 2-19 to 0-22 and Ballyboden overcame a huge performance from former intercounty star Dean Rock who managed 0-15 on the day for the team from the northside.

The side now looks towards the championship, their first game scheduled for August 8 against second place Na Fianna.

The Echo spoke to manager Eamon O’Reilly on the goals heading into the competition and the competitiveness of the league.

“To be honest the goal was basically getting on top of the new rules and getting the new group together.

‘Playing a new brand of football which is the same for everyone. That’s the number one goal.

‘Essentially trying to get ourselves into a situation preparing for the tasks to come later on in the year.

‘That’s the goal of the league. Develop young players, bring them on and bring the team together under a new management group.”

“The Dublin league, Division 1 is hugely competitive. Even though we were missing intercounty players throughout it you still have a hugely competitive club league in Dublin.

‘Right from the start with Pat’s in Donabate, Ballinteer St John’s, the Thomas Davis game.

‘You have great challenges right through to the end, look at Friday night. You have guys like Dean Rock coming off the back of a stellar Dublin career and kicking 0-15 against you.”

St Enda’s lost their opening match against St Patrick’s Donabate by an albeit close margin of 1-15 to 1-12.

The game after, they would host Na Fianna at home scoring a six point victory of 2-19 to 2-13.

That win would go on to be hugely important to the campaign as Na Fianna would finish in 2nd place and the only team within touching distance of Ballyboden.

Victories would follow against St Oliver Plunketts and St Marys Saggart before Ballyboden would drop points for the final time in the league. An away trip to Ballinteer St Johns saw a 2-12 to 0-18 scoreline with both teams having to share the points.

Ballyboden would go on to win all of their remaining games in the league, though some were certainly easier than others.

Ballyboden St Enda’s overcame Ballymun to claim the Adult Football Division One title

They just about got past Fingal Ravens by a single point and have very close games with Thomas Davis, Kilmacud Crokes and the aforementioned Ballymun Kickhams beating all three by only three points.

Still they were more dominant wins sprinkled throughout with matches against Lucan Sarsfields, Clontarf, Cuala, Castleknock and St Judes all being won by margins of 10 points or even more.

While Boden do possess a plethora of intercounty talent including the likes of Colm Basquel, Ross McGarry, Alex Gavin and James Madden to name a few. The real strength in the team came from the presence of a solid squad which provided them the platform to put in the performances they did in the league.

“It was a team effort, different lads stepped up at different times.

‘There’s no one player you’d say we couldn’t do without him. It wasn’t even a team effort, it was actually a squad effort. I think we used 37 players in the league which is a huge amount of players. Every one of those players contributed moments throughout the league helping us on our journey.”

O’Reilly, while happy with the side’s performance in the league, is under no illusions as to what the real goal is for Ballyboden this year.

“To be honest, our key focus is the championship. And is on performing well in the championship.

‘We have an incredibly difficult game on August 8th followed by two very very difficult games to even get out of our group.

‘That is the only focus we have at the moment. To be in a position to perform against Na Fianna and in the two subsequent games against as I say, a very very good Vincents side who are up and coming and a Ballinteer side who have been well earmarked over the last number of years as being a great side.

‘We saw that ourselves when we played them.”