O’BRIEN IS NOT FINISHED WITH KINGDOM YET
STEPHEN O’BRIEN admits that advancing years and impending fatherhood made him think twice about giving it another year with Kerry.
O’Brien completed his 10th season on the county panel last year and turned 33 in February, while last month he became a father for the first time as his wife, Tara, gave birth to a boy, Nolan.
With the Kenmare man living in Cork and big changes to his life in the offing, he had to put some thought into whether he would carry on.
“Maybe it’s always there in the back of your mind, especially when every year you’re past 30 it has to be a topic of discussion,” he said.
“I just felt that the body’s in a good enough place that I wanted to give it another go.
Priority
“Obviously having the baby was priority number one, but once he was happy and healthy and my wife was very supportive and wanted me to keep going, so we’re happy with him now and we’ll see how this year goes and make a call later in the year about next year.”
The Kerry-Cork rivalry, which will be renewed in Saturday’s Munster semi-final in Killarney, has lost some of its competitive edge with the Rebels having only beaten them once in the
Championship since 2012, though it still holds weight with O’Brien for obvious reasons.
Calendar
“It’s always one we highlight on the calendar. Obviously it’s the age-old rivalry, what we were growing up going to games, especially when I started going to games Cork were in the ascendancy, especially in Munster and things like that.
“I went to UCC as well so I’d know a few of them as well and living in Cork it definitely doesn’t lose any appeal and the way they’re going at the moment, it wasn’t maybe the start to the League that they wanted, but they’ve rebounded well and are playing well towards the end of the League.
“We know we’re going to have a huge task.”
Kerry haven’t lost at home to Cork in the Championship since 1995, though they did relinquish a 28-year unbeaten run at Fitzgerald Stadium to Mayo in last year’s AllIreland group stage.
O’Brien added: “It was something we referenced in other games through the course of my career so we were bitterly disappointed to lose that record. But we were proud of the record and we were sad to see it go.”