PRIME BRIAN: O'Driscoll's journey back to centre stage

IT was always in the back of Brian O’Driscoll’s mind that if he ever got the chance to tog out with Cork again, he would be in the best possible shape to grab that opportunity and run with it.

He was made to wait.

The Caheragh man was let go from the county panel after the 2018 season by then manager Ronan McCarthy, and spent the next four seasons on the outside looking in. They are O’Driscoll’s lost Cork years, from 25 to 28 years of age. Instead of building towards his prime, he was battling to get noticed by inter-county selectors. 

The general feeling was that he had his chance, but blew it.

Persistent shoulder and hamstring injuries held him back, but he knows he made his own mistakes that ended with him being dropped from the panel.

‘I have regrets in terms of I might not always have prepared myself as well as I could have and that probably represented itself at times in my performances and in terms of injuries,’ O’Driscoll told the Star Sport Podcast in November 2021. He had just captained – and inspired – Tadhg MacCarthaigh to the club’s first Carbery Junior A football title since 2012, and was turning heads in the Carbery division. In that same chat he made no secret of his ambition: he wanted another chance at inter-county level. But season after season, he never got the call he wanted.

‘It’s never gone away, the fact that I want to get back into the Cork jersey again,’ O’Driscoll admitted. He talked about unfinished business. That winter, he didn’t get the call he hoped for from new Cork football manager Keith Ricken.

He was still on the outside looking in. Waiting, but preparing.

Brian O'Driscoll celebrates Cork's All-Ireland group stage win against Mayo.

During the lockdowns of 2020 he was living at home in Corlis in Caheragh. They were long days that rolled into the next. Nowhere to go, but he made sure there was plenty to do. His oldest brother, Colm, a former Cork senior footballer too, is a fitness coach. During Brian’s years exiled from the county scene Colm looked after his strength and conditioning. That plan didn’t change during Covid. Colm had gathered all his equipment from the gyms he ran in Drimoleague and Skibbereen, and he built an outside gym at the family home. Weights. Rowing machines. Exercise bikes. There was even a rack made out of timber for chin-ups and pull-ups. Brian gobbled it up. Together, they took Brian’s fitness to inter-county standard. He was ready.

On this week’s Star Sport Podcast, former Cork footballer Micheál O’Sullivan – who worked with Brian in the Carbery senior football set-up last season – hailed the Caheragh machine’s conditioning.

‘He is in unbelievable shape,’ O’Sullivan noted, pointing at O’Driscoll’s injury-time interception in the All-Ireland SFC preliminary quarter-final triumph against Roscommon on Saturday. 

‘He was still going at full tilt after 74 minutes and that is a testament to himself because he had been out of inter-county for four years. It’s not easy to come back in and hit the ground running.’

The unseen work Brian put in when the eyes of the county didn’t look in his direction and when he was being written off are paying off now.

There were nights during lockdown when the rain was hammering down, and Netflix looked the only option, when he dragged Colm outside to push him even more. Think of Rocky IV and Balboa’s old-school training in Russia. That was topped up with road running and cycling; in December 2020 Brian and his other brother, Kevin, now a former Cork footballer too, cycled the 180km from Mizen Head to Kilbehenny for charity. 

Carbery's Brian O'Driscoll in action for his home division in 2022.

Brian was in prime condition, and that showed on the field, with Tadhg MacCarthaigh and crucially in 2022 with the Carbery senior footballers; this was the chance he needed and the forgotten man grabbed it. His home division gave him the stage he needed – and, chest puffed out, he starred under the spotlight. 

‘Brian’s influence had a huge bearing on Carbery’s success last year in that his actions on the pitch and his attention to detail inspired others to do the same,’ Carbery boss Tim Buckley says.

As the Carbery football train gathered speed, so did O’Driscoll. He made use of this shop window, as did his Bantry Blues’ Ruairi Deane, another who felt his time with the county was cut too short.

O’Driscoll turned heads – and most importantly he caught new Cork boss John Cleary’s eye. His form was that good. Man of the match against UCC in the divisional/colleges semi-final. Man of the match against Duhallow in the final as Carbery won the Tadhg Crowley Cup. Third highest scorer in the entire championship (1-27, with 0-11 from play). This was his comeback.

Older and wiser, what we see now is a more mature version of the raw player in his early 20s who had the potential, but perhaps not the ideal application to harness what he has. The path is clearer now.

He had to grow up on the field. And he has. He turned 29 years old in April and knows he has a certain window to make the most of his ability. There are many pieces to this jigsaw; his time spent with his brother Colm as a coach with the Newcestown senior footballers helped too, deepening his knowledge of the game. It was all building towards a call he wanted, pushing him in one direction.

John Cleary had worked with O’Driscoll at Cork U21 level so there’s a connection already established. Once he got the Cork job, he touched base with the Caheragh man: this was his opportunity.

‘He played four years in a row at U21 as he was an outstanding prospect at that stage. In his mid-20s, things didn’t go well for Brian. I wasn’t there when what happened then,’ Cleary explained last weekend.

‘Last year I saw Carbery’s games and Brian was starring in every one. When we were appointed, Brian was one of the first calls I made to. He was absolutely chomping at the bit.

‘I know he went away and did his own personal training regime. I gave Brian a buzz after the last Carbery championship game and I said look, we will give you a couple of weeks off before joining up with us.

‘Brian said there will be no weeks off for me, I want this more than anything. He has given us everything since he has come in. He has proven to be a great leader.

‘Brian is fulfilling the promise he showed at U21 level.’

O'Driscoll has taken his chance with Cork, building through the league and has started all Cork’s five championship games, growing in importance to the team. He was immense against Roscommon, many people’s man-of-the-match. The Cork half-forward was shortlisted for GAA.ie Footballer of the Week. All-action. Industrious. Dynamic. The mood music has changed, and so have many people’s opinions of him. Once considered by some as a liability, now he is helping to make the Rebels tick. This is the player Cork great Billy Morgan told the Star in 2017 could ‘be among the best in the country’. 

O’Driscoll enjoys the physicality. Has a massive engine. Covers the entire pitch. Links play. Can defend, too. He ticks a lot of boxes. Star GAA columnist Micheál O'Sullivan feels there is more to come.

‘A lot of his play in the league and the early stages of the championship with Cork, I’d consider it as cagey. He has a lot more ability to kick points from distance, there’s more to his foot-passing ability. I’d love to see his GPS stats given his ability to cover the field because it must be up there with the best in the Cork squad or with anyone in the country,’ O’Sullivan said, adding ‘he is in his absolute prime and in prime condition.’

That can be traced back to home in Corlis, hours spent with his brother Colm, all prep work for an opportunity Brian wasn’t sure would ever come again. Now it has, he is making the most of it. He has taken his second chance.