Old friends are best as O’Sullivan eyes rivals

IT is the beauty of Broadway or the West End that even if you miss a hit play or musical one night you know it will probably still be running in a week or a month’s time. So it is with Kerry and Cork.

On Sunday, the great Munster rivals will face each other for the 20th time in league or championship since 2004 when Cork shook off the mediocrity that had embraced them in its grip for a handful of seasons.

Declan O’Sullivan makes no bones about it. He’d rather not be running into his neighbours an average of three times a year but that isn’t to say he doesn’t feel that buzz down his spine on weeks like this.

“I don’t think it is diluted,” he explained. “There is a good rivalry there at the moment and no-one wants to lose to each other. The fact is that Cork are after finding a good few players this year so they will have some players who haven’t played in the fixture over the last couple of years.

“It is the same with us after losing five or six fellas. We have a couple of new fellas in the panel and maybe the team as well so there will be a bit of freshness from that point of view. It is a Munster semi-final down in Killarney and no-one wants to lose that. The intensity is going to be right up there.”

It is testament to the mutual tradition the two powerhouses have amassed that the rivalry is still able to generate such passion and an attendance that should spill comfortably over the 30,000-mark this weekend.

It is no wonder then that O’Sullivan greets talk of an open draw with an air of hesitancy. The All-Ireland may be the ultimate goal, but Kerry would dearly love another provincial bauble after two diversions through the qualifiers.

“Every year you go out you try to win every game. From our point of view, we would love to go the direct route this year because it is in the lap of the gods if you go through the qualifiers.

“You could get the away draws there and you could be out of the championship very early so the best thing to do is to try and keep winning your games so that bit of luck doesn’t come into it.”

Heaven knows that O’Sullivan has witnessed the good, the bad and the ugly of this particular sporting rivalry. The lowest moment was, unquestionably, the Munster final replay in Páirc Uí Chaoimh four years ago.

Captain at the time, O’Sullivan’s form didn’t keep pace with his elevation to such a position and he was booed off by a minority of his own supporters when substituted by Jack O’Connor.

Cork ended three years in the wilderness with a six-point win that day but the treatment of O’Sullivan left an equally bitter taste for the manager who subsequently railed against it in his autobiography.

O’Sullivan has long moved on.

“To be honest, that was tough at the time but what is tougher is being asked in every interview about it since. I’m trying to let it go. It is water under the bridge and not something I want to be remembered for.

“There have been a lot of games played since then and I have proved myself since then as well. It was obviously a tough time but, again, I learned a lot from it. It was a make-or-break situation for me at the time.

“Looking back on it, it was a great experience in a way. At the time, obviously, it was difficult. Every player has gone through patches in their career where they haven’t been playing great.

“You are going to get criticism and you just have to learn to take it. At this stage now, you probably don’t take any notice of the newspapers or what people say, the internet as well, which has become very popular. You just have to stay away from it, talk to the guys in the group and in training and get your confidence there and see where you are.”

Where he is happens to be a very good place indeed.

Three All Stars in the last three seasons are testament to his response to adversity and, though one of the country’s standout number elevens, he performed a star turn at full-forward last summer.

With Kieran Donaghy injured for all but the All-Ireland final, O’Connor turned to his South Kerry comrade who welcomed the opportunity to embrace a different role and experience life from another perspective.

Not that he was some greenhorn. O’Sullivan spent much of his underage career on the edge of the square and has clocked in for similar shifts with his club and the senior county side in the past.

“It kept me on my toes really. It is a different aspect. It gave me a different way of looking at the game. Maybe you get into predictable habits if you play in the same position.”

Few opponents have been able to figure him out yet.