Cork’s late bloomer
Cork arrived in Killarney that summer after stuttering past Limerick in the semi-final and the expectations of them trumping Kerry had leavened accordingly.
But Cork unleashed an early challenge of such heat and ferocity that they lead 0-7 to 0-1 after 29 minutes, O’Brien’s input to that scoring spurt symptomatic of the team’s play. Twice he pounced to win the kind of breaking balls that could just as easily have lost him a limb instead of setting in train a move for a teammate to score. Kieran O’Connor and Fintan Goold may have been credited with the points but the scores had O’Brien’s fingerprints all over them.
As cameos they encapsulate neatly what his role in this Cork football team is about. He’s not judged by the amount of flags he raises, but by a more primitive statistic like how many breaks he snaffles around the centre. In a football era where Paul Galvin and Brian Dooher are to the fore with aggression and energy as their primary weapons, O’Brien is their Cork counterpart. So how do those Galvin-Dooher comparisons sit with the Nemo man?
“I’m not too sure about those comparisons. You may be more defensive and then on other days you’re told to push up. I just play it really as I’m told. But I probably would be more defensive than most half-forwards. When I was younger I was scoring a bit more. I probably view my role in whatever way the management say. You try to find a role for yourself in a team. When you’re told the couple of things that you bring to the table, you try to work on them.”
In Ephie Fitzgerald’s eyes there is no better candidate for that No. 10 jersey that requires such manic energy and intensity. The Nemo Rangers senior coach has seen O’Brien’s worth up close. As integral as marksmen like Masters and Kerrigan have been to Nemo’s three-in-a-row county march, they only succeed due to the ammunition that O’Brien supplies.
“Sean is our ball winner with Nemo. He may not be a great scorer but when we’re under pressure there’s no better guy to win that 50-50 ball. His work rate is just unbelievable. We give him a free role really and he could just as easily end up in the full-back line. He is invaluable for us.”
The journey to this point has been more meandering than direct. At 28 O’Brien has pinned down a half-forward line place but it’s taken time. He’s fluctuated between the first XV and the substitute bench, and when on the pitch he’s been in an array of spots.
In 2003 he debuted at corner-back and over the next two seasons was immersed in the Cork football downturn that saw beatings by Limerick, Roscommon and Fermanagh. 2005 was spent kicking his heels on the bench, 2006 was a year of personal growth as a constant fixture at wing-forward and then 2007 was consigned to a brief showing in the Munster semi-final against Tipperary. With Nemo they have shifted his jersey number as well, in 2003 he was left corner-back during their All-Ireland club success but he was at full-forward for their 2005 and 2006 county wins. That versatility has been a hindrance as much as a help. “It has taken him time to adjust at inter-county level,” admits Fitzgerald. “He’s been a late bloomer in that sense. I don’t think his versatility has helped. If he had a bad game in one position he could be moved the next day and never given a chance to settle.”
O’BRIEN has grown accustomed to the constant moving around the pitch. It has been always thus.
“At this stage I’ve probably played more of my career as a forward. When I was growing up in Nemo, I played as a forward. Then with Chríost Rí I was playing half-back and then corner-back with the Cork minors in 1998. I went onto the U21’s the following year, played one game as a forward and two games as a back. I’ve always been mixing between the forwards and the backs. I guess it’s something I’ve got used to.”
The challenge this year has been to find some stability. He’s found himself bubbling with enthusiasm since the season began. There were traumas in last September’s mauling by Kerry, the January stint on the picket lines and the March club championship final defeat with Nemo by St Vincent’s. But those memories were offset by a globetrotting stint he went on last October. Whiling away time in the hotspots of Melbourne and Sydney was a welcome antidote and he linked up with the Cork side’s holiday in Rio De Janeiro and Buenos Aires to further the exotic sojourn.
“I was away for a few months so I was raring for any game of football. Maybe it was different for other fellas but that’s the way it was for me. The football is pretty much 12 months a year now and you mightn’t realise you’re on the treadmill the whole time. It’s bound to take it out of you at some stage. In that sense it’s good to get away. I had a great trip and I’d more enthusiasm for it coming back.”
THIS summer has brought its own joys as well. Coming back into that starting XV for the groundhog role was something to enthuse about, as was that madcap second-half Munster final comeback. O’Brien’s role was brought to a halt when he was concussed in the second-half incident involving Marc Ó Sé and the first-half had brought its own troubles in trying to adapt to Cork’s tactical system of withdrawing the half-forward line deep.
“It was a system that we had worked on before and it worked well. On the day obviously it wasn’t working in the first-half and the management changed it around for the second-half. We played against Kerry a good bit in recent years and haven’t been overly successful against them. It was just to try something different but I think it was worth a go and thankfully the game worked out in our favour.”
Now the trick is to repeat the feat against Kildare tomorrow. Cork have floundered in Croke Park in recent years and reversing that trend will quell their critics. “The most important thing is what we and our management think of ourselves. But it’s too early to be silencing doubters anyway. You want to win a Munster title but you also want to kick on and use that to go all the way to winning the All-Ireland. We’ve been knocking on the door for a while and the teams that win the All-Irelands have been the teams that have been close previously. That would give you the belief that we’re in the frame.”
If Cork are to succeed they will require the scrapping abilities of O’Brien as much as the power of Canty and the finesse of Goulding. Ephie Fitzgerald reckons that with O’Brien they are in safe hands.
“When he was back in Chríost Rí, I thought he’d the makings of a fantastic footballer. He’s progressed well from there. He might be a small fella but he’s not one bit afraid. He has guts to burn and that’s key.”
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