If James Weldon was in any way circumspect about his decision to call up 32-year-old Orla O’Reilly to play full international for Ireland for the first time in 13 years, that feeling quickly subsided two weeks ago.
“She walked into training and was just hugging the people she knew and shaking hands with the people she didn’t,” says Weldon. “And then [she was] straight up after practice to say ‘we covered a lot today but I need to be more aggressive offensively.’
“I’ve been able to watch her form in Australia this season and, once she was available, it was a no-brainer really,” says the Irish senior basketball coach of selecting the former Glanmire star for Sunday’s arduous 2023 Eurobasket Qualifier against the Netherlands, when the rangey six-foot guard’s perimeter shooting will be just as vital as her leadership.
Equally strikingly, Weldon has awarded a first senior cap to Waterford Wildcats’ 18-year-old Kate Hickey.
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That’s the age O’Reilly was when she and her twin Sinead left Cork to take up sports scholarships at New York’s Binghamton University 14 years ago.
Four years later Orla headed to the Czech Republic, and playing pro-ball has since taken her to Europe’s top female league (Spain), Iceland and Australia, the latter now her adopted home, where she plays semi-pro.
She takes no offence at the mention of the big age-gap between her and others in Weldon’s particularly young side. Indeed, she is happy to give it added context.
“Not only have I not played with any of them before, I actually coached most of them when they were younger, at summer camps with Basketball Ireland or Rip N Run. That’s really showing my age!” she laughs.
O’Reilly’s pro career – a season with Czech side Karlov Vary before three with Spanish premier Liga Femenina club Bembibre– initially coincided with Basketball Ireland’s seven-year withdrawal from international basketball (for financial reasons).
She did play internationally in 2015, part of the 3v3 side who made history by reaching the quarter-finals of the European Games in Baku, where they were knocked out by Russia.
She was due to line out in the European Championships for Smaller Nations a year later but broke her wrist playing international 3v3 just days beforehand.
Then, after injury stalled her career in Spain, she moved to Australia, where the season runs until August, preventing any Summer involvement here.
But she has been in regular contact with Weldon since his appointment in 2019 and regards this not as a belated call-up but the basketball planets just finally aligning.
“People say to me ‘oh it’s been 13 years!’ but for me I feel I’ve always been involved,” she says. “This just turned out to be the perfect time for me and I’m so excited. There’s such a buzz around Irish basketball right now and I’ve had such FOMO missing out.”
Winning back-to-back titles with Sunbury Jets (2017/2018) in Australia provided the best days of her career and prompted a moved to KR Reykjavik the following season.
“I was already with my partner in Australia but thought I’d love just one more go at Europe, to experience somewhere different. My agent was looking around and said ‘how about Iceland?’
“I was like ‘amazing!’ I’d never be able to go there to live so it was just a once in-a-lifetime opportunity. There were volcanos and waterfalls, just the most epic experience.
“That’s one of the things I’d say to anyone with the desire and opportunity to play professional sport. It will bring you to the most amazing places and experiences and you get to chose where you want to go.”
Despite all her adventures, she could not have foreseen how 2020-21 panned out. She was pregnant when Covid struck, so she was pretty isolated by Australia’s strict lockdown when her son was born in May 2020.
“My poor mother was distraught. She had her ticket booked and couldn’t come over but my parents eventually got over, as soon as the borders re-opened for family members in January 2021.”
Little Finley and her fiancée Peter Zurzolo are currently enjoying their first holiday together in the bosom of her Cork family, who are revered in the Irish game.
Her brothers Niall and Colin are Blue Demons legends, Sinead is back playing Super League for Glanmire and Colin, who has played for and coached Ireland’s men, is currently head coach of Neptune.
Motherhood may no longer be any impediment in team sports but she admits it tested her emotionally rather than physically.
“I didn’t get back training with my club again until November 2020 when I was still feeding Finley. The 2020 season was cancelled due to lockdown so I didn’t lose any basketball. By the time we re-started, it was nearly a year later and a lot easier.
“It definitely takes a bit to bounce back [physically] but once you get back into [collective] training it’s fine. Look at [Glanmire’s] Claire Rockall! She had a baby five months ago and she’s flying it on the court now.
“The more you see other women doing it, the more you know you can but it’s not an easy thing initially. Your mind is always with your kid.
“This year I felt it was easier. Finley came with me to games, he’s in my arms in the locker-room and I pick him up right afterwards. He just runs around the court and there’s a million people willing to help.”
She discovered a passion for jewellery-making during lockdown so set up a small online business, Fin & Bear – called after her son and dog –, which she combines with full-time parenting and playing for Waverley Falcons in NBL 1 South, Australia’s second tier.
“It’s a ‘living wage’ in terms of living myself but I wouldn’t tell my partner to quit his job. It couldn’t support us, definitely not in Melbourne anyway,” she quips.
“Australia has two leagues. I play in the State Leagues but the WNBL, like the WNBA, would be on quite a good wage. If you’re a European player like me, you’re getting to travel and explore new countries, it’s more about the whole experience.
“But I’ve been pretty lucky. I had three years with the same club in Spain and then three with Sunbury, both on a good wage. I never got pushed around, never ended up in a club or team that I wasn’t treated well.”
She’s witnessed first-hand the progress made by women’s team sport Down Under, where soccer and cricket superstars like Sam Kerr and Ellyse Perry can now command big wages and endorsements.
“You can see the WNBL and the AFLW in Australia really pushing for equality now. There’s a lot of Irish and Aussie girls who are really respected athletes over there. You see them on cereal boxes, they’re being promoted and have real visibility.
“When I see that I don’t flinch. I think ‘I played against her and there she is in the supermarket now’. I expect it to happen because I see them as such amazing athletes and that’s how they’re widely regarded.
“Basketball is huge in Spain and women are well paid and get massive crowds but it’s harder for me to judge Spain [culturally], partly because we were much more secluded, in such a basketball bubble there, and also because of the language.
“In Australia sport is just naturally a massive part of the community and I really feel part of that.
“It’s not surprising to see a huge cut-out of a [female] player in a supermarket. Here I wouldn’t be surprised to see Katie Taylor on a cereal box but I would be surprised to see a basketball player on one. That’s the difference.”
Ireland v the Netherlands, NBA Tallaght, Sunday, 19:15. Live on TG4
