Stephen O’Brien of Kerry, pictured at the AIB sponsorship launch of the 2024 GAA All-Ireland Senior Football Championships at the D-Light Studios in Dublin. AIB marking it’s ninth year sponsoring GAA All-Ireland Senior Football Championships, will once again celebrate #TheToughest players in Gaelic Games - highlighting the grit, determination and passion that is required to win this year’s Championship. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
By Cian O'Connell
"It’s still very enjoyable," Stephen O'Brien says about more than a decade on the inter-county beat with Kerry.
The time has moved quickly, but O'Brien simply relishes being involved with the Kingdom on the eve of another Munster SFC campaign. "No-one’s making you play, you’re doing it because you want to do it," he adds.
"It’s a little bit different when you’re one of the older lads, but still great craic. When you started out you were playing with fellas you were looking up to and were nervous around them whereas now you’re totally comfortable and can chat away with lads.
"Most of the lads coming through nowadays had a lot of success underage so they didn’t really need help from us really. But you’re there for them if they need any advice."
O'Brien is ready, willing, and able to assist emerging players. The Kenmare man believes the split season model has been beneficial too. “I think it’s way better," he responds.
"When I started out playing, this would have been a club month. We would have gone back to the clubs for a few weeks and played championship games while training with Kerry.
Kerry's Stephen O'Brien in Allianz Football League action. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
"You didn’t know where you were really so it’s nice to just be focused on Kerry at the moment and when you do get back to Kenmare later on in the year you can give your focus to that.
"When I started you could have 13 weeks between the end of the league and the first championship match. You play the whole season now in that length of time. Most weeks you have two weeks between championship games, only once last year we had to play on consecutive weekends. That’s perfect really."
Now Kerry are busy preparing for Cork in the Munster SFC at Fitzgerald Stadium on Saturday. What was O'Brien's assessement of Kery in the Allianz Football League? “Overall, probably a bit inconsistent really," he says.
"There probably is that element of shadow boxing, maybe some teams are keeping things back. The day against Dublin in Croke Park was very disappointing, that dampened spirits at the time and maybe tainted the whole league, but we responded well enough to that, winning the last couple of games.
“We were looking forward to making the league final, but it wasn’t to be and now we’re looking forward to championship on Saturday.
“Cork are traditionally Kerry’s biggest rivals so you always wanted to test yourself against them. That’s a huge game for us now.”