Life in the bubble treating star man Stephen just fine

N the outside looking in it’s sometimes possible to miss the obvious, to miss the fact that players are more than just names on a team-sheet, to miss the fact that players are people too.

So calls are made for change, calls are made for an overhaul of the panel with scant consideration for what it might mean on a human level for those who leave (or those who are asked to leave) and for those who remain.

Kieran O’Leary’s dignified statement on his departure from the panel gave us a first insight into what it might mean. Speaking on Sunday after a stellar performance, which bagged him 1-5 from play, Stephen O’Brien fleshed it out further still.

The cull when it came, came at a time when Kerry weren’t in training. It came in the week after the league final when players were with their clubs and districts. A much needed and healthy break from the week-in week-out grind of the league.

When the news of it, the cull that is, filtered through it caught fans and media alike by surprise. They weren’t the only ones caught by surprise that May Bank Holiday weekend. It was news too to a lot of the players.

“It was sombre enough,” O’Brien explains.

“It’s a personal thing as well, they’re your friends. Kieran [O’Leary] was captain two years ago. Jack Sherwood and Pa Kilkenny I’m up in Cork as well and we were travelling down together as was Tommy Walsh. Personally it’s a friendship thing there.

“I haven’t seen any of the lads since, so that’s disappointing. On the flip side of that then that’s elite sport for you, it’s a moving beast really. The new lads came in and straight away at the next training there’s nobody feeling sorry for themselves.

“The lads have come in there and they obviously have serious class behind them, serious pedigree. You forget about it quickly enough.”

Though it may seem strange to a lot of us, life continues much as before. Such is the nature of inter-county football, such are the demands placed upon those who seek to compete at the very top. Not that O’Brien is complaining.

“You definitely get in a bubble because your week is kind of the same week on week,” he says.

“You go to work and you see the people you work with, that’s a bubble and then you see the lads you go to training with and that’s a separate bubble. You’re not going out on the town at weekends so there’s a little less spontaneity in your life.

“There is a bit of a bubble, but sure I’m not feeling depressed about it or the lads aren’t! There’s great craic in training as well, it’s not a bad bubble to be in. It’s not like you’re coming in here and hitting the grindstone.

“You’ve better craic on the evenings you’re training than the evenings you’ve to stay at home and recover. I’d rather have the training.”

For all the wailing by certain commentators – say those with a south Derry lilt – about players being forced to live a monk-like existence, O’Brien makes clear that whatever sacrifices they make the players make them willingly.

He makes it clear that the good far outweighs the bad. Days like last Sunday make it all worthwhile. There’s bigger fish to fry certainly, but that’s not to say you don’t enjoy days like that when they come around. “It was good,” he says. “We started well, we got a couple of goals there and got on a good bit of ball. We’d a nice breeze behind us and we were well on top at midfield and we won all our kick-outs in the first half as well so we won a lot of ball. It was good to get a few scores and the forwards played well enough, so we’re happy enough with it.

“I got a bit of a shock with the first goal, it was a ball into nothing and we got

a goal out of it. I think they just played manon-man at the back, which you’ve just got to say fair play to them and sure they scored seventeen points themselves so it was a good sort of traditional game of football more than anything.

“That’s the way it goes if both teams play six on six, it’s high scoring.”

Even before he and his teammates made their way from the pitch they heard the news that Cork were humbled in Semple Stadium, that the traditional Munster final wouldn’t be happening this year. Is that a little disappointing? Does that make it a little harder to get the competitive juices flowing for the first Sunday in July?

“No, it’s a Munster final,” O’Brien fires back straight way.

“There’s a medal on the line, up for grabs, so it’ll be easy get up for it. You’re playing for Kerry in championship so if you need motivation you’re in the wrong place really no matter who you’re playing and Tipperary then a lot of the younger fellas would have had heartache against them.

“I wasn’t on the panel, but my first year out of minor the Kerry Under 21s, who were fancied for the All Ireland a serious team a lot of those players are still inside here, and Tipperary turned them over inside in Tralee.

“I played with a couple of lads in college then Peter Acheson and Conor Sweeney, class players altogether. Acheson is a warrior altogether and Sweeney is deadly up front so obviously they have some serious players, minor All Ireland winners as well.

“No more than us when we see the quality of players that came through after Kerry’s two All Ireland minor winning sides. Obviously Tipperary have the same quality, you don’t win an All Ireland soft at minor level, so they’ve got some class players there.

“They’re just at the right age now, twenty one, twenty two.”

There you have it all the motivation you could possibly want. O’Brien will be tuned in for that contest in a little over two and-ahalf weeks time. He’ll have to be with places in that Kerry forward line looking harder and harder to come by.

James O’Donoghue played sixty minutes for Legion just a couple of hours before O’Brien did his stuff across the road in the stadium. Johnny Buckley too is just a couple of days away from a return to training. “Every day you got out you try to get better, that’s how you get to the top,” he says.

“You have your inspirations inside here you don’t need to go far, just look across the dressing room at Gooch or James [O’Donoghue] so it isn’t just about trying to get on the team.

“They took it to an extra level so we all aspire to them.”