Search for fifth All-Ireland medal takes on extra meaning for multi-talented O'Reilly

Her green and white flag contribution across four of Galway’s five All-Ireland wins means O’Reilly is at the stage in her maroon existence where she gets to write her own pre-season and spring.

The melting of 2025 into 2026 was no different. She did as she so often does during the winter months. The camogie field was traded for the basketball hall.

Where once it was the high altitude of the Women’s Super League she would operate, it’s been the lower step of the Basketball Ireland Development League (BIDL) where Ailish has kept her eye in since returning to the game in November 2023 for the first time post-Covid.

The Claregalway outfit she is a leading figure of went all the way to the concluding day. O’Reilly did not want to abandon this journey to begin her 2026 Galway journey. The National League threw in and O’Reilly continued throwing baskets elsewhere.

During Galway’s team holiday to New York at the end of February, Cathal Murray was informed that she and the body still required a couple more weeks. Buying time, perhaps, while still contemplating if there would be an inter-county campaign No. 14.

“With the basketball, we happened to be progressing quite well and ended up in an All-Ireland final, so I said, do you know what, I am just going to concentrate on actually getting to train with them and try and put my best effort into it.

“Once I am in a team, I want to give my best effort, and Cathal said, look, if you come back at the end of March, we knew I still had until the end of June, end of July to get myself right,” O’Reilly recalled this week.

Basketball is both a passion and welcome change of sporting landscape.

“I have been playing it a long, long time, even before I picked up a hurl. It is just a complete change of scenery when the camogie is finished. The training is less stressful. The level I am playing now, you could nearly call it junior. It is just the craic, really. It's just a release, a release of energy for a couple of months,” continued the 32-year-old, who knows that at her age and with the mileage she’s clocked across both codes, she could do with lightening the year-round schedule of Galway, Oranmore/Maree, and Claregalway.

“The body needs a break, and I don't give myself a break. But it's funny because the basketball doesn't hurt or ache me whatsoever. It’s once I come onto the soggy pitches and then the hard ground, it is completely different. I'll be long enough not being able to play so I'll keep going while I can.” 

Fr Matthews proved too strong in the April 12 All-Ireland decider, O’Reilly bagging seven points in the 74-45 defeat. From the National Stadium, she pointed the car for Nowlan Park and the Division 1 League final against Waterford.

“I only came back in with Galway the week of the League final, but I didn't tog because I was playing basketball the same day. It was a rush from Tallaght to Nowlan Park, got caught in a couple of fuel protests, so missed most of the first half.

“When I came back, I was asking, 'God, have I left it way too late to come back?' I was playing catch-up. Then if I am back too early, my body is nearly breaking down by the end of summer, so it is a balance I have to get right. I am still very, very rusty.” 

Murray, for this part, would rather have the five-time All-Star rusty and racing to catch-up than not have her at all.

“She's a big character around the place and she did mention the word retirement. I felt this time that she would be walking away, and maybe if you pushed it and said, well, we're going back in January, she mightn’t, but it’s brilliant to have got her back,” said the manager.

There are three Galway players - O’Reilly, Aoife Donohue, and AnnMarie Starr - in possession of four All-Ireland senior medals. O’Reilly is the sole member of this group to have started all four.

Her big-day record is unrivalled. She delivered the sole goal of the 2013 decider, she delivered two of their three goals in the 2019 win, she assisted the winning goal in 2021, and last August top-scored from play with 0-3 while involved in another 1-2.

From inside tormentor to half-forward threading, O’Reilly's role has been reshaped in recent years. From exclusive provision of green flags in the collection of her first two medals to exclusive provision of white in doubling that collection.

“I don't have the same movement or mobility as I had five or six years ago. You see the likes of Caoimhe Kelly and Niamh Niland, and the pace they have to burn. The last day I was very far out the pitch, but I don't mind. You're using your experience and finding those pockets of space more so than being in the inside line.” 

The hunt for a fifth carries special motivation - and it ain’t back-to-back. Her granny, Mary O'Reilly, passed away in May. A constant supporter and spectator since starting out in maroon at U16.

“My biggest supporter. I can still see her sitting up in that stand. She'd be the first person I'd call after a game. Hopefully, she'll be looking down on us. If I can make her proud on Sunday, that's enough for me.

“Look, if there is one good performance in me, I'll take it.” Given her track record, there usually is.