Just over a year ago, Éanna basketball club's under-20s team narrowly missed out on the chance to win the National League Plate final at the hands of Belfast Star.
Teenagers Nathan Comerford and Cathal O'Sullivan were part of that four-point loss at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght.
But fast forward to this weekend and not only have the duo got a chance to earn a shot at redemption in this year's U20 decider on Saturday, against Tralee Warriors, the following day they will be part of the senior Griffith College Éanna squad that will take on Pyrobel Killester in the InsuranceMyVan.ie Super League final.
It's a tricky balancing act for the two 19-year-olds in making sure they can contribute effectively to both teams in the lead-up to and on the final days themselves.
"We've been doing a lot of prep. Nathan and I have been with the Super League (team) all season, training hard and that's obviously brought us on a lot and for our development for the 20s, which has really helped us a lot," says O'Sullivan.
"Being in two finals, we're obviously very lucky, but also we'd be more senior players to the 20s team. So we have to take it easy in the Super League training a little bit but we're also there kicking on the rest of the lads, making them work hard in training and making sure they're competing and ready for Killester on Sunday."
Basketball success isn't the only target for them. While O'Sullivan is tackling an engineering degree at UCD, Comerford is about to embark on his Leaving Cert at Coláiste Éanna in Ballyroan, south Dublin.
It's a school that really reveres basketball and won the Under-19 All-Ireland this year, which means technically speaking, Comerford is on track for a treble if all goes well this weekend.
"It's very busy trying to manage the studying and then training every night of the week but I get it done," he says.
"I had my mocks about a month ago. It was fairly chaotic, the weeks leading up to that, but all year, once you get into a routine of coming home from school, do your two or three hours of study, get ready, eat, go to training, it's all about routines really.
"Once you manage your time wisely, don't waste your time and just work hard, then it'll be fine."
And Comerford already knows what's next after the Leaving Cert with his chosen sport offering him a scholarship opportunity abroad.
"I've a few courses on the CAO but actually next year instead of going to college in Ireland, I'm going to a prep school over in America on scholarship, so that will be a great experience."
To earn his place at the prep school in Maine, which will bridge a gap between high school level and university, it took an extensive effort to put his name out there to prospective institutions.
"A dream of mine is to go play basketball in college on scholarship so between myself and my mum, we just got a load of lists of coaches' emails, going onto their websites and just sending hundreds and hundreds of emails," Comerford explains.
"You might get five or six replies out of 50 and then you've got to follow up on those and it's just keep sending emails, keep talking to coaches and eventually you will find schools that are interested in you and good coaches that, once you send them your tape, they'll be interested and offer you a place."
As for Comerford and O'Sullivan's current senior coach at Éanna, Darren McGovern, they are full of praise for his influence in the lead-up to Sunday evening's encounter with Killester.
"Darren's great, he's great with us young lads as well but he's great with the whole team," says O'Sullivan, who feels the momentum from a strong end to the league season bodes well.
"He just wants the best out of us. He knows how to get the best out of us. He always works us hard, never lets us off easy but that's what you want in a good coach and I think he wants it more than any of us on Sunday so hopefully we can do it for him."
And valuable lessons have been learned from last year's Under-20 final loss that they hope will carry into Saturday and Sunday.
"It's never nice losing in a final but I think we did take a lot away from that game. It can be quite scary, quite daunting going into the Arena; big final, big crowd, lots of noise," says O'Sullivan.
"That was one of my first times playing in a final in the Arena. It's a huge experience but just having that experience now and being able to carry that into Saturday knowing what to expect; it's going to be physical, it's going to be loud, there's going to be tight calls, missed shots, made shots, all those little things that happened in the game last year.
"I think when the going gets tough, when the match is going down to the wire, we have that experience now that will hopefully be able to help us on Saturday."
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