O'Brien expecting Carlow SHC Final to be another great battle

By John Harrington

Paul O’Brien says he loves being around people who are passionate about hurling.

That’s just as well, because he’s around them a lot.

His day job is Head of Gaelic Games at Dublin City University, he coaches his son’s U-8 team with his club Crumlin, he was a Performance Analyst for the All-Ireland winning Tipperary hurling team this year, and he manages the Mount Leinster Rangers team that will contest Sunday’s Carlow SHC Final against St. Mullins.

Safe to say then that when it comes to people who are passionate about hurling, there are few more passionate than O’Brien himself.

You wonder how someone who spends so many hours around the game in a live setting can then have the appetite for analysing video as much as he does, but he reasons it’s time much better spent than sitting on the couch watching Love Island would be, and it’s hard to argue with him there.

“I might be getting a bit philosophical here but there are multiple different things that are great about the GAA and I certainly believe there's no harm in being busy and being on the go,” O’Brien told GAA.ie

“There are so many roles that you can do in various different aspects of the GAA. Even in my work role different students come in here and some of them are great footballers, hurlers, ladies footballers, or camógs or whatever the case may be and some of them aren't particular good at that but they're massively passionate so maybe they can go and be a great coach or an administrator or an analyst themselves. There's loads of different roles that people can be doing.

“I wouldn't be mad into blowing my own trumpet. I would see the likes of Margaret Byrne there, the secretary of Mount Leinster Rangers, as the absolute epitome of what the GAA is about. The volume of work she does is remarkable, she's driving all aspects of the club down there in Borris, Rathanna, and Ballymurphy.

“The culture down there and love for hurling they have is infectious. It's been very enjoyable being down there in that environment with people who are so passionate about their club and trying to achieve what they're looking to achieve.”

O’Brien is in his third season managing MLR. In 2023 they defeated St. Mullins in the Final and last year they lost to the same opponents after a replay so Sunday’s game is a rubber match.

It should be a terrific tussle between two teams absolute stacked with a host of county stars.

“I think in terms of the forward firepower that's on display in this match on Sunday, you'd struggle to find any other individual club match across the country to compare with the quality of players that will be on show,” says O’Brien.

“Not just even in the forwards, the whole way through the field really. You'll have around 80 per cent of the Carlow team on show on Sunday.

“The standard is really high and that's reflected in how well Carlow as a county team have done in recent years. They'll have been very disappointed not to have gotten to a Joe McDonagh Cup Final this year."

It’s hard to know which team will come out on top on Sunday, but you could safely predict that Chris Nolan will be one of the dominant personalities of the game regardless of the result.

He scored 2-5 from play in last year’s replayed final and 1-5 from play when MLR were victorious in the 2023 Final.

He’s one of the most lethal forwards in the country on his day, and the bigger the occasion the more he seems to rise to it.

“It's a pleasure to be in a field with Chris Nolan watching some of the stuff he can do and how he leads so much,” says O’Brien. “When you say he invariably produces when the pressure is on, he very much does.

“That's a great sign of a player that he does produce his best when the pressure is greatest and he has done it in a Carlow jersey, a Rangers jersey, and a SETU Carlow jersey when he was at the forefront when they were competing for Fitzgibbon Cups.

“He's a special talent and a hard-working, passionate man about hurling."

St Mullins will be very aware of the threat that Nolan will pose but nullifying it is another thing entirely.

You could say the same about St. Mullins players like Marty Kavanagh, James Doyle and Paddy Boland.

These two teams know one another inside out, but forewarned isn’t necessarily forearmed.

“There's a serious history and familiarity between the two teams, but you still don't know what's going to happen or who is going to come with what,” says O’Brien.

“It very much does take on a life of its own. Having been involved in a few Carlow finals it's actually very hard to know what's to come. It's very much about what's inside people and what they get out of themselves on the day.

“There can be a lot of second guessing about what an opponent is going to do because they're all so familiar with each other. For 20 plus of them they're spending more time nearly hurling together in the Carlow set-up than they are with their clubs over the course of the year.

“So, they have a huge insight into each other and you're thinking what does he know about me, what does he not know about me, that sort of scenario is very much prevalent.

“It's good because it taps into the psychological aspect of the game.

“Both teams have the ability to play to a very high level so the key thing for both them and us will be to hurl to that potential on the big day. The calibre of player is there but you need to perform.”

Sunday, August 24

JJ Kavanagh & Sons Carlow SHC Final

St. Mullins v Mount Leinster Rangers, Netwatch Cullen Park, 3.30pm