O’Brien: Poor Páirc record no concern for us
Coming on as a second-half substitute, the Toomevara man was part of the side that won there in 2008, the first time since 1923, to qualify for that year’s Munster final.
“We’ve only won once in so many years but records are there to be broken. Stats like that wouldn’t sit in our minds too much.
“Cork are a good team. We can only get our own house in order and hope to perform well on the day of the match.”
O’Brien reckons the team will be the better for their narrow and late-staged win over Limerick last month.
“I think so. If we won that game by 20 points it wouldn’t be any good. It’s good to have a bit of a shock and you get the jitters out of the system and lads are ready for the next day. That’s going to be a massive battle.
“It’ll stand to us. The management team might have found out a few things about us and our style of play.
“We’ve a lot of lads to come back and a lot of lads who were playing well were sitting on the bench the last day came on and did well.
“Twenty boys got a game, there’s more there to get games so it can only be good for the next day.”
After the disappointing Division 1 semi-final defeat to Cork, O’Brien felt Tipperary had nothing to gauge their form on, which was a concern.
“Going into the Limerick game, I suppose we didn’t know where we were and people weren’t giving Limerick much of a chance.
“We knew after seeing Limerick against Clare in the league, they were unlucky to beat Clare and that is a good Clare team.
“So we were expecting a big battle, we didn’t match them in intensity for 50 minutes and when we did we got back into the game. It’s a relief to get through it, the first round of the Championship. At the end of the year, nobody really remembers the first round but we needed to get started and that’s a start.”
O’Brien signalled the amount of effort and decision-making as the two areas Tipperary needed to look at following the win over Limerick.
“I think it is that work-rate and the right use of the ball, the right options. There were a lot of times when we didn’t take the right option and that comes again with each individual player trusting his own mind and gut when he has the chance to pass. It’s option-taking, decision-making and it probably wasn’t at its best on the field. I stress it was the first round, it’s a start and we’re going to work on it.”
The 30-year-old dismissed the idea Tipperary wore Limerick down, rather pointing out that Limerick worked harder than them for the majority of last month’s game.
“The way things have gone, everybody is doing the same thing. The likes of Dublin and Galway, they’re upping the intensity levels again and Kilkenny, in fairness, up it every year so I wouldn’t say we’re wearing down teams. For those 50 minutes of the game, Limerick worked harder than us. We got to grips with that with about 15 minutes to go and I think maybe they tired a little.
“They were probably a little inexperienced too, they are a young team, but that won’t happen to them again.”
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