Pain eases as O’Sullivan gains final perspective

It took a while, says Conor O’Sullivan.

Invited to describe how losing an All-Ireland final eventually sinks in on a player, the Cork hurler breezes through the last week ever since he and his colleagues went down fighting against Clare.

“It’s sunk in since I stopped hanging around with the lads, put it that way,” he says.

“Sunday, Monday, they were good craic because you’re all together and you’re all in the same boat, basically.

“I lost my phone on Monday night — there was a taxi, no money, it’s a long story — and I got it back on Wednesday. There were 17 messages, 27 missed calls, 48 notifications, so I spent Wednesday night on the couch going through them, shaking the head. Daniel [Kearney, his club and county team-mate] had called up to the house, so we’re in a brutal depression altogether.

“Back to work on Thursday. Horrendous again.”

With the perspective of a week, though, O’Sullivan can bring himself to analyse the eight-goal shoot-out last weekend with some detachment. Though Cork were rocked by Shane O’Donnell’s early hat-trick, they were positive.

“I never thought the game was going to get away from us,” says O’Sullivan. “That it could get embarrassing, even though they obviously had a great start with the three early goals.

“I felt if we got even one point ahead of them that we might do it. They’re set up to be on top, not to chase a game when they’re behind, and we might have asked questions of them if we got ahead. They’d have had to change. We were making mistakes, though, they crowded us very well — even the goal Seamus [Harnedy] got came from a deflection.

“But the only stage I really thought it was beyond us was when Conor McGrath got his goal, Clare’s fourth. I was running directly behind him, his shot was right in my line of vision, and it was a class finish. Right in the top corner.”

O’Sullivan shook hands with some of his opponents on the field and headed into the dressing room: “Jimmy [Barry-Murphy] didn’t want fellas hanging around the dressing room. He was straight up, sound out, in the dressing room after, spoke well about how we’d done all year, and then we got going.”

O’Sullivan dismisses talk of Ciarán Sheehan and Aidan Walsh as late call-ups to the hurling squad.

“Management called in a few lads to training in the run-up to the replay, but they were lads who’ve been in and out to training games the whole year, not Ciarán and Aidan.

“That’s down to the players, anyway, whether they feel they can play both codes, or focus on one. That’s down to the player, and then whether management can accommodate their choice if they feel they can play both football and hurling.”

Experience keeps a dear school, the saying goes, and O’Sullivan points to a couple of lessons he picked up along the road to the final.

“It was enjoyable. It was class while the game was on. The replay was only an hour and a half later so we just had breakfast a bit later, it wasn’t a huge inconvenience.

“And you’d pick up a bit, too. I had a stitch in the first game, so I had a good bit less to eat for the second game, and it stood to me.

“Even in the warm-up, I’d usually take it easy enough, but this time I went hard and got the second wind, and it was better that way, too. You’d only learn those things by going through it, the whole experience from the Friday evening to the Monday morning or whatever. Nothing prepares you for that, for the experience of getting ready for it.

“It’ll stand to us next year. We know each other better, the bond is good. We’re all young enough, too, so hopefully we’ll peak around 27, 28. We’ll be back.”

He came back to a new job with Laya Healthcare, where he’s now a business market specialist. It’s given him a new focus at the end of an incredible year.

“We played in a Munster final and in two All-Ireland finals. If you played in two All-Ireland finals in your career it’d be incredible; to do it in three weeks was unreal altogether. How could you not be happy with a year like that?”