O’Brien’s passion for Tipp helps him overcome set-backs

By Stephen Barry

For Steven O’Brien, it has been a frustrating few years with the Tipperary footballers.

Firstly, there’s his injury record, although he remains hopeful of returning from his latest setback sooner than later.

Then, there’s the ever-changing panel since the end of David Power’s tenure, across Paul Kelly’s stay, and onto Philly Ryan’s rebuild.

“You do your best,” said O’Brien of his captain’s role in bonding a new group.

“The lads who have come in this year are top-class and want to be there, which is a huge thing.

“If I was to look negatively on it, the frustration is it's another year of another whole new panel because we’d the same last year and the same the year before.

“If you're going year on year where you're just starting afresh, it's very hard to build momentum, build consistency, build systems of play.

“In fairness to management, they're well aware of that. We're all talking about a two-to-three-year project and making sure everyone on the panel this year wants to put their hands up for next year too.

“We lost fourteen of last year's panel. If we lose fourteen again next year, it's hard to build that consistency.

“If we can get a couple of results, that makes it easier for lads to commit again. That's what we're hoping to do.”

Given the player turnover, is it tougher for the self-described “elder statesman” to commit?

“Personally, no,” responded O’Brien, who turned 30 in December.

“I love playing with Tipperary. It’s what I always wanted to do when I was a child.

“There’s going to be long enough where I won't be able to do it – even though I'm half a cripple at the minute – but as long as I feel fit and able to add value to the group and management want me involved, I'll be making myself available.

“It can be frustrating, but I'll be sedentary for long enough without it. That's when I’ll look back and maybe regret it if I went too soon.”

His hamstrings have limited O’Brien to a handful of games in recent years, but he came into 2025 with “a completely different approach” to galvanise the hammies. Next thing, his quad gave out.

“In one sense, I was glad that it wasn't the hamstring, but then I was like, jeez, here's another one just to add to the list.”

He pushed “a bit too hard” to return for Limerick in the League, which caused another delay. A scan will determine the Ballina clubman’s involvement in Saturday’s Munster Championship opener against Waterford.

O’Brien was open to playing that game in Clonmel over FBD Semple Stadium, citing the “extra couple of percent off the crowd” in their League victory over Longford.

“Of course, we all want to play in Semple Stadium, but you prefer playing in a game where there's a buzz around it,” he said,

“Semple Stadium has a lot of games on it so our own game time there is limited in terms of getting in to train. Sometimes it can be as much of an away factor as it is for the teams coming because we're not playing and training there.

“I was talking to some of the other counties, where they train full-time in Cusack Park or whatever the case is. Maybe that's something we should be able to do in Semple Stadium.

“I’ll leave that up to the powers that be. I know I’d prefer if we’re going to be playing our games there, if it's a home ground, we should be able to get access to it.

“We're not going to get in there for every session, but if you get in there for half a session every week, it does make a difference.”

For now, the focus is trained on their Déise date.

“We just want to get a performance, hopefully undo the result of last year, and kick on again,” said O’Brien.

“There'll be nothing between us again. If we can get a few bodies back, it’d go a long way.”