William O’Donoghue: 'I've deleted apps for the last few weeks and months'

William O'Donoghue poses for a portrait. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

William O’Donoghue is talking distractions. Bandwidth. Focus.

From last Sunday week to this weekend, there’s only so much he’s letting in. 

Henry Shefflin’s appointment as Kilkenny manager last week flew over his head. A lot of things will because they are superfluous to him before an All-Ireland final.

“I don't think ye'd be disappointed to hear I probably won't read these articles,” he smiles. “There's so much emotion over the next two weeks. Everyone's going to think that you want to stop and talk about the match.

“Anything you have control over that you don't have to... you can say, ‘I pay no need and I don't care,’ but if it goes in there, it's in there. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a monk. An awful lot can get in there. I just didn't see anything this morning. I'm not on Twitter.

“I've deleted apps there for the last few weeks and months. You can say something doesn't affect you, but you open your phone and you see something and it could provoke a certain thought or feeling. I don't need that right now.” 

The beauty of owning FemFuelz, the women’s supplement company, with his sister Kylie is that O’Donoghue can delegate work in the build-up. On Kylie’s instructions – “She probably cares about the hurling more than I do, so she will definitely allow some flexibility.

“But, it probably allows me to protect myself because I'm not in an office setting with 100 other people. Those who I work with are very aware of what topics we are allowed to discuss.” 

O’Donoghue’s focus is restricted to Limerick games only. He watched only a smidgeon of last year’s Tipperary-Cork All-Ireland final. 

He didn’t see the purpose in sitting down and taking it all in nor Galway’s win over Cork last Saturday week, the day before Limerick’s victory against Clare.

“There's this perception out there that we're robots and that we didn't care it was on and no one was bothered by it. I was very much aware it was on, but I just knew that we had a match to play on Sunday that I needed my energy for.

“To be honest, the finals the last two years, I just wasn't in a place that I wanted to watch that. Don't get me wrong, the All-Ireland final is, in my opinion, the biggest day in the Irish sporting calendar and it's an incredible occasion, but sometimes your appetite wouldn't be great to watch it if you're not there.”

O’Donoghue’s “stay in my lane” approach applies to analysis too. He tends to leave the tactical thinking all to the coaches and performance analyst Seánie O’Donnell.

“I think it would be dangerous for me to form my own opinions. That's when things start going wrong, I'd say. I'll let the experts tell me what to start thinking because, Like I said, if I start to form the opinions myself, we could be under pressure.” 

O’Donoghue is among the select few players who grew up with the theatre of dreams within touching distance.

Former Tipperary forward Ger 'Redser' O’Grady was raised across the road from Semple Stadium in Childers Park. 

O’Donoghue’s home place is in the shadow of the Gaelic Grounds. “We lived in Ashbrook, just around the corner, so we moved about 500 metres back in about 2004, but it is quite literally staring at the Mackey Stand.” 

He was never able to sneak in for a puckaround – “Spike (Mike O’Riordan, Limerick secretary) definitely wouldn't allow” – but he also had aspirations of playing beyond his local Caherdavin Celtic side.

“I probably dreamed about playing for Man United as much as I did play for Limerick, as a young kid. But from the age of 12 or 13, when you're actually that bit more serious and actually are aware of what's going on around you, yeah, it was absolutely the goal.

“It wasn't exactly a linear line for me either, that it was like, ‘Oh, I'm destined to play for Limerick.’ It was probably a roundabout way and took a lot of time and effort and consistent improvement to get there, so it wasn't something that was always going to exactly be put in front of me.” 

O’Donoghue was 13 when Limerick won their Munster semi-final trilogy against Tipperary in the Gaelic Grounds. “I got Seamus Hickey's jersey that day. I was one of the ones who kind of went on to the pitch that bit early and got shepherded off.

“There was a Na Piarsaigh man Paul Murray, who was involved with Limerick at the time, doing physio, and I remember kind of scurrying my way under the Mackey Stand and Paul threw me out Seamus Hickey's jersey and I still have it at home. I brought it to the media night in ‘07 and had the whole back of it signed.”