‘Massive effort’ needed to beat Clonkill, says O’Brien

“I am home for good.”

Those five words from ace hurling forward, Niall O’Brien, after a two-year stint working overseas, will be music to the ears of two other O’Briens – his father, Castletown-Geoghegan manager, Pat, and the unrelated Shane, bainisteoir of the Westmeath senior team.

In the short-term, they will be worrying words for all involved in Clonkill’s attempt to win a hat-trick of Westmeath Examiner Cups next Sunday afternoon in TEG Cusack Park, as one of the Lake County’s most talented attackers in recent years was back close to his prodigious best in his side’s comfortable win against Castlepollard in the semi-final.

However, Niall is very aware of the challenge posed by Pat O’Toole’s charges. “We were taking it one game at a time and not even thinking about a county final until after the semi-final, obviously,” he stated.

“It will take a massive effort to beat Clonkill. They are a very seasoned team. They have a lot of experience and have a couple of young lads now. We are going to try and stop them getting the three in-a-row as best we can.”

The consensus among the few handfuls of neutrals who had ‘golden tickets’ to both penultimate round clashes last Sunday week was that Castletown had looked the better of the two finalists in their respective victories.

However, Niall knows only too well that Clonkill are invariably a serious proposition in a final, including last year when the same two teams clashed.

“It’s a sign of a good team that when it comes to a big game they show their true colours. Any team that is going for a three in-a-row, no matter what county it is, has to be respected,” he opined.

When queried as to what he sees as the key areas in the decider, he responded: “Work-rate will be the main focus for us. Both teams are pretty even in terms of physicality and skill but it will come down to who wants it more, who is the hungrier team. Neither team has a player who’s going to win it on his own, it will take a massive team effort.”

The format of this year’s truncated championships in both codes has seen dual players in action virtually every weekend. With most of next Sunday’s challengers also playing intermediate football for St Malachy’s up to the semi-final stage, niggles and more serious injuries were somewhat inevitable. In this regard, the very influential Shane Clavin seems unlikely to line out for Castletown-Geoghegan.

Niall clarified the situation as follows: “Shane was due to meet a surgeon last week. He still has pins in his finger and it is looking like he will be out. Personally, I was happy enough to be playing week-in-week-out, as I hadn’t been around for so long, but for the lads who had been around, it was tough.

“It’s not a problem once you’re winning. However, with niggly injuries, you often don’t have time to recover. But this is not an excuse, and we’re just happy now to be in a final.”

Understandably, he would like if more spectators were permitted at games in these very strange times. Overall, however, he is philosophical.

“When you are playing a game and very focused on it, you don’t really notice the crowd much, or hear much other than what the players on the field are saying,” he reflected.

“When there are 200 in there, they are loud enough anyway. They still make a nice bit of noise. It hasn’t affected me or any of the players, from what I have heard.”

And will black and amber ribbons adorn the Westmeath Examiner Cup around 5.30pm next Sunday? “We’re very hopeful,” Niall concluded.