Parnell Park hosted Dublin GAA’s version of the Late Late Show on a Sunday of remarkable injury-time plot twists – culminating in the fall of the 2025 All-Ireland senior football champions, Cuala.
Several Cuala players collapsed to the ground at the final whistle while others just stood there, utterly frozen to the spot. Shell-shocked, to a man.
The Dalkey outfit led Ballyboden St Enda’s by seven points with five minutes of normal time remaining in their Dublin SFC semi-final. Some folk had already started to trickle out of the ground. The wind had eased off. The day was done.
But Ballyboden conjured up a quite astonishing comeback to score 2-3 without reply, 1-2 of that coming in injury-time, to stun the defending champions, 3-21 to 2-22.
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The first time Ballyboden led all afternoon was when Daire Sweeney netted a 62nd-minute goal – the last score of the contest.
“I’d be lying if I told you that I knew we were going to win that game with five minutes to go,” said Ballyboden manager Eamon O’Reilly afterwards.
“But you’re hoping that the character of the men that you have in the dressingroom will shine through. And in fairness, it absolutely did today.”
Both Dublin senior football semi-finals were won, or depending on your viewpoint, lost, in injury-time.
In the first of the afternoon’s fixtures, Na Fianna drew level with Kilmacud Crokes in the final minute of normal time. They then drilled forward where James Doran popped over a winning point in the first minute of injury-time, 3-11 to 1-16.
“Our team has shown fantastic resilience in the games to date,” said Na Fianna manager Tom Gray. “Today was just another example of that.”
With Cuala and Kilmacud Crokes both losing, it was an afternoon when the 2025 season ended for two of the last three All-Ireland club champions.
It will be a Na Fianna versus Ballyboden decider now on Saturday, October 18th at 8pm. Na Fianna last won the Dublin SFC in 2001, Ballyboden in 2019.
Crokes led 1-11 to 2-3 at half-time in the first semi-final with Na Fianna scoring their two goals in a wild 60-second burst. Aside from that, Crokes had looked the better side. Shane Walsh produced a kicking masterclass in that opening period, scoring 1-7, with 1-6 of that coming from play and including three two-pointers.
The third of those two-pointers was an outrageous score, one of those “surely he’s not going to try from there” efforts as he wound up his right peg. He stroked his shot from outside the 45-metre line and the ball crossed the bar with so much to spare that it’s unclear if it has actually landed yet.
But against the wind in the second half, Crokes struggled for scores and in truth they were too reliant on the Galway man. Paul Mannion missed the game because of a broken bone in his hand.
They finished the game with just four scorers, with Walsh tallying 1-11 of their 1-16.
But Na Fianna – who lost Eoin Murchan to a quad injury early on – refused to panic at the break and with the aid of the breeze to come, they kept swinging back on each occasion Crokes looked to have dealt a knockout blow.
David Quinn’s goal early in the second half was a significant score for the Mobhi Road outfit and with Brian O’Leary and Conor McHugh both causing problems, Na Fianna clawed back to get level in the 52nd minute.
When Walsh popped over a free he had won himself with three minutes remaining, there was a sense that Crokes had weathered the storm. Na Fianna weren’t done yet though and when Ciarán Reddin responded extra-time was on the cards.
However, team captain Doran – just as he had done in Na Fianna’s quarter-final win over Ballymun – surged forward to kick a winner.
Paschal Donohoe was in the stand watching his son, Oscar, hare about Parnell Park to help Na Fianna get over the line. The Minister for Finance, lifted by such excitement, is now sure to loosen the purse strings and reward the Irish public in the budget.
This is a truly incredible period for the club. They were crowned All-Ireland hurling club champions in January and should their small-ball side beat Kilmacud Crokes in next Sunday’s hurling semi-final then Na Fianna will contest both Dublin deciders this term.
But their footballers want to end the season with silverware, not merely a big day out.
“Probably if you ask most neutrals around Dublin, they’d say Na Fianna as a football team have underperformed the last few years,” added Gray. “Frankly, getting to a final is not what we are about.”
Getting to a final didn’t look like what Ballyboden would be at for nearly all of their semi-final. But Sweeney sparked a stunning resurgence with a rocket of a goal in the 56th minute to reduce the deficit to four points.
It shook Cuala, who from that moment on looked about as solid as a cube of ice in a sauna. The last few minutes were a Ballyboden blitz – a fisted point by Ross McGarry, two-pointer by Callum O’Dwyer, goal by Sweeney. Final whistle. Shock and awe.
“Cuala have been outstanding champions,” said O’Reilly.
“Probably towards the end it didn’t look like [we would win] but we got ourselves in a position and that comes down to our lads really getting stuck in and just basically not giving up.”
Ballyboden hammered Na Fianna by 4-23 to 3-9 in the group stages of the championship in August.
“That was just a total malfunction on their behalf,” recalled O’Reilly. “They’re a super side, they showed it throughout the rest of the championship, that was just one of those nights.”
And Sunday was one of those days. Cuala and Crokes will have regrets. Ballyboden and Na Fianna won’t care a jot. The fall of the kings, deep in injury-time.
