“I f**king told you why that crest is on the left hand side of the shirt. It’s over your f**king heart, lads. And this is what it’s about now. F**king heart.”
Dublin.
It’s not for the faint-hearted. It’s not for the half-hearted.
You don’t come through Dublin if you’re not serious. You don’t come through Dublin if you don’t have ambitions to go on a bit further.
The last six Leinster finals? Six Dublin teams. Five different clubs. Five times, the capital emerged from the province.
It’s the same story: if you want to win Leinster, you have to beat Dublin.
That’s why, even when Ballyboden St Enda’s emerged from the most competitive county in the land for just the third time in their history, they have aspirations of going further and clinching a first ever provincial title because it was there for the taking. And, Jesus, how they grasped it with both hands in that epic decider with Portlaoise.
Now, here they are, on the cusp of a date with Croke Park. On the brink of a St Patrick’s Day parade on Ireland’s most hallowed ground. On the verge of an All-Ireland final.
An All-Ireland final.
In their way, Clonmel Commercials of Tipperary.
They’ll tell you that the Munster team are underdogs, that they’re living the fairytale story and that the big, bad Dubs are there to be shot at.
Sure, Ballyboden is massive. They have the most amount of teams in the country. They have a population base. They have the power in numbers.
What they don’t tell you is how this a community. It’s a community of Gaels. It’s a community of families and, just like any club in Ireland, it is a community of disciples who would do anything for the St. Enda’s crest.
Just listen to the stirring montage that the senior players listened to before their county final with St. Vincent’s. Just listen to what it means to them.
It’s grounded people. It’s humble people. It’s people who are doing it for their club. People who are doing it for each other.
“Look around, we’re all best mates here. We’d all f**king die for each other here.”
And, yes, they have a fair bit of talent to go along with it. They have arguably the best midfielder in the country in Michael Darragh MacAuley. They have Andrew Kernin and Conal Keaney running riot in a forward line that “county teams don’t have.” They have Stephen Hiney crashing his body off anything that moves and even a Donegal exile so committed to the club that he’s flying back from the middle east to be there for the All-Ireland semi-final. And he just so happens to be Paul Durcan, one of the finest ‘keepers in Ireland.
Of course they have talent. You don’t win championships without it. But don’t presume for a second that they don’t have heart. Because that’s what Ballyboden is about. That is what’s lining their club and their history-making success story that is this season.
And, when they take for Portlaoise on Saturday, it doesn’t matter an iota what sort of size their community is. All that matters is the 15 men on the field lucky enough to represent their club. All that matters is 15 men giving everything for the cause.
All that matters is that they’d die for it.
And Ballyboden will. This is what they live for.
“County is temporary but club is forever.”
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