Who rocked our world
and the physicality of it.
‘When I look back at what I did, I always think about my fitness. I would never stand still. I’d always be on the move so that if the ball did come, defenders, they might stay with you some of the time but they’ll get fed up following you and that’s when you’ll get your chance. I had a little bit of pace so if I got a run on someone it would be hard to catch me. That’s the way I played the game. I kept on the move, even when we were defending. If the ball was cleared and the defender hadn’t stayed with me then that was my chance.
‘I think I played two seasons with them. Then I got a call up to the youths, the adult side of the Kennedy Cup team. Joe Fagan, in fairness to him, a committee member who passed away there, he used to bring mw down to the trials, he put my name forward as well. I went down to a few trials and got on to that. I can’t remember much about that but I did make the team and played a few games.
‘I was back enjoying it. Football was always an outlet for me. I was working in Industrial Yarns with the brother but football was always an outlet. I loved going training and then after the game the craic, the banter.
‘I was approached by Little Bray then. Billy Cash was asked to approach me by the manager to see if I would go down. I was getting to the stage where I’d have all these offers to go play somewhere but this wasn’t too far, it was only down to the People’s Park, so I could jog down there or whatever,’ he said.
There’s definitely a bit of a trend starting here with Kieran O’Brien’s dislike of travelling and how it kept him rooted to the local area. It’s not a negative thing. More young players than we will ever know made long journeys to play on teams and chase dreams and more than we will ever know failed.
Kieran explains the thinking behind it and also reveals that staying put probably did have an effect on his overall career.
‘Just the hassle of buses, not a lot of people had cars back then,’ he said. Before adding, ‘as I got older, you could see the Ireland under-15s and six lads from Joey’s, as I got older it started to come into effect,’ he said.
But Kieran had made his decision. He was happier among his own, surrounded by his family and friends, working during the day and striving to be the best footballer he could be in the evenings and weekends. ‘Tarzan’ would sparkle for Little Bray United. In the Wicklow Cup final of 1992 he scored four goals against Aughrim Rangers on the way to a 5-2 victory. If he hadn’t already been noticed, he was soon going to be.
‘Wasn’t great facilities down in People’s Park, the lighting wasn’t great for training, you didn’t do much ball work but I didn’t mind running, I didn’t mind the laps, but the quality of the football with the lads down there, it was great to be involved, lads knocking the ball around, possession football, you didn’t want to be in the middle of a possession game down there because they were so good at keeping the ball. I had two great years down there with a mix of experienced players and younger guys like myself, Billy, Stephen Martin, ‘Mousey’, we were all 19, 20 and 21 and then you had the experience of Des Kelly and the lads. It just clicked.
‘From playing with Wolfe Tone
Wanderers, they were a good side, but this team were dominant in everything they were doing. The standard was really good. You always believed going on to the pitch that you were going to win with these lads.
‘Looking back on football in general, success breeds more success. The hunger was there to go and do it again because the celebrations after it were phenomenal with family and friends. At that time the League was really well supported. The crowds that used to be down at games between ourselves and Glenview, it was incredible to play in front of, there would be hundreds along the sidelines. And Greystones as well, they were really well supported. There would always be good crowds, so playing in front of people would give you that bit of hunger as well. I always had the dream as a kid of playing in England, don’t get me wrong, that was always the dream, unfortunately I never got that far but the atmosphere playing down there was incredible.
‘It was gas, actually. My wife, her brother used to play for Glenview, and when I was only dating her at the time, they used to be saying to me, ‘oh, he’s sleeping with the enemy’ and all that. It was a bit of craic. But the derby, that was a derby, because Glenview had emerged and had taken so much of Little Bray (players) and Little Bray had to totally reform again, so there was always a little edge between Little Bray and Glenview.
‘The first year down there we won the Wicklow Cup, we won two or three trophies. I think we were beaten in the Wicklow Cup then and we went on to win the league. We won seven trophies; I can’t remember them all. I think we won the Charlie Bishop two years in a row,’ he said.
An invite to play Leinster Senior League with Joeys followed. After all the requests to go down he finally agreed and despite finishing as highest scorer on the team they suffered relegation. But it showed him football at a higher level. And that was a lesson he needed to learn because what followed was epic!
‘Someone came out from Joey’s and said would you not give it a go (the Leinster Senior League). The team (Little Bray) were aging and I wondered if it was time to give it a go, they’ve been looking for you to go down since you were 12, so I said I’d give it a go.
‘The standard was good. Joey’s struggled, and they were a good side. I actually think they got relegated. I think I finished top goal scorer with them, but I think we got relegated. There were some really good sides in it at the time, the likes of St. James Gate. It was the top flight. It was a bit of a jump. There are four divisions in the Leinster Senior League. The standard at that level was quite high. A lot of the lads would have been ex-league of Ireland lads or lads who would have went on to play League of Ireland. It was a learning experience.,’ he said.
And then a seven-a-side tournament would change his life forever.
‘What happened was, Tony McGurk was taking over, he ended down in Bray anyway, as a manager. He came out and had a meeting with me. I told him I hadn’t even decided what to do, haven’t looked anywhere, and he told me he’d love to have me back. So, I said, ‘look, leave it with me’. There were a good few weeks left before pre-season. And at the time there was always a good seven-a-side up in the Vevay, up in Wolfe Tone, and I used to always play with the lads, Billy Treacy, Steven Martin and ‘Mousey’. John Holmes was over watching it and he was over Bray at the time and he seen me playing and he said to a fella, Shay Brien, ‘tell Tarzan if he wants to come down training to come down Tuesday night.’
So, I said to myself that I’d give that a go, went down training with Bray, signed with Bray on an amateur contract. Played with the reserve league, took me a while to get into the team. But the reserve league was good. You don’t have it now. Anyone who was injured, couldn’t play or trying to get match fit used to play in it. Shelbourne used to have really good sides in it at the time. Their first team was brilliant so anyone who wasn’t getting a game on the Friday night would play with the second team on the Saturday. So, again the standard went up. Myself and Shay formed a good partnership with Bray and I think I scored 20 goals in my first season.’ he said.
‘Tarzan’ is quick to admit that playing in England was the dream as a young child and teenager but did lining out for Bray Wanderers appeal to him at any stage when he was growing up, had it been a goal of his?
‘No (not a goal). The truth be known, I didn’t know much about Bray Wanderers at all. That’s the truth. I didn’t know much about the League of Ireland. It’s a terrible thing to say but I didn’t know much about it. I used to watch English football on the telly.
‘It came up and I said I’d go for that. I just thought it was another step up. The first season, John Holmes gave me my first start, I think I had a couple of appearances as a sub, not many, but he gave me my first start with three games to go and I scored twice against St. James Gate away and then John stepped down, so I thought, ‘oh Jesus, no way, I’m only after getting into the team and scoring.’ But Pat Devlin came on then and Pat had been away from the game after having a successful stint with Bray and all he done was stick with the same team that won that game, I think we played Drogheda and I scored again. Pat came into me and said, ‘are you on a contract?’ I said, ‘no I’m an amateur.’ He said to me that he wanted me to sign for next two seasons. I signed the contract for two years with Pat as a semi-pro. The next two seasons with Bray were probably two of the best seasons I had. I know we had the big win in the FAI Cup but as a team we won a Shield, got promoted. I formed a good partnership with Richie Parsons. One of the common denominators (in his career) was good partners I had, and working with them, having to adapt to different partners. Richie was a goal scorer like myself but the two of us had an understanding. If he was gone out, I’d stay in and vice versa. That’s important because you’re picking up things all the time.
‘The likes of Richie, I remember him saying to me down in Galway, we walked out onto the pitch, and just before we tipped off he said, ‘Biscuits is in goal,’ and I said, ‘yeah’, and he said, ‘do you know biscuits?’ I said, ‘no’. He said, ‘he’s always off his line’.
‘So, our first attack, the ball broke to me, and I didn’t even look up, I just dinked it. It was the quickest score I ever scored away, 22 seconds. And he ran over to me and said, ‘what did I tell you, what did I tell you.’
‘He had these little bits of knowledge about things that you pick up. If Richie had said that to me going down on the bus, I would have forgot it. It was just before we tipped off, he said it and he was stuck in my head so without even looking I said I’d dink it in the air and see what happens. Of course, he was outside the six-yard box.
‘Me and Richie scored a lot of goals over the years together. We won a first division; we won a Premier Shield in the first couple of seasons. We had the heartbreak of a couple of relegations, then we were able to bounce back up. We got a bit of a yoyo name. I was scoring regularly the first three or four seasons with Bray and then the goals started to slow down and, again, the standard got higher when you went to the Premier so the game had to change again, trying to hold the ball up, become a creator rather than a goal scorer. The likes of Jason Byrne came on then, different partner. He was more of a threat in behind than I was and I kind of became to him what Shay Lowe had been to me. I’d be getting the ball into him.
‘I was still scoring the odd one but not as many as Jason,’ he said.
Different partners change the dynamic for some players and certainly for attackers. If Kieran O’Brien is one thing, he’s intelligent and he can adapt and change his game to help the team. Was the change in how he played purely of his own doing or more tactical?
‘Depending on your partner, depending on the level of the defenders, a little bit of getting older, maybe your pace isn’t as quick, I was probably 27 or 28 at this stage. I was still scoring goals but not as regularly as I had been when I was 22, 23, 24. And Jason was a very different player, Jason was really direct, really quick, so in training you’d be working on stuff. The two of ye can’t be doing the same run in behind, so what I used to do was drop in, get the ball played to my feet. Or, if that didn’t happen, you’re trying to pull a defender out of the way and Jason had the pace then for the midfielder or defender to pop it in behind. He was really quick; it suited his game to do that. It was kind of a tactical thing as well.
Continued overleaf.