Kilmallock's O'Brien is embracing coaching chance with Kerry hurlers

PAUDIE O'Brien bleeds green and white. Kilmallock green and white. Limerick green and white. A hurler for both, his inter-county career ended when John Kiely took over as Limerick senior manager in 2017, but he is still ploughing along with his beloved Kilmallock at club level.

O'Brien turns 35 this September, but his hurling passion is only increasing. Out of the blue, he took a call from Kerry senior hurling manager Stephen Molumphy a few months ago and was immediately intrigued. The decision to get on board with ‘The Kingdom’ was an easy one.

"I'm loving things so far,” said O'Brien at the launch of the Co-op Superstores Munster Hurling League. “I wouldn't have thought three months ago that I would be sitting here talking about Kerry. It was never something that was on my radar.

"I'm still playing for my club and want to continue to do so for as long as I can, but once the phone call came up out of the blue.

"I had to ask myself how many times would this chance come again? I had to take it on and I'm delighted that I did."

O'Brien admitted that he was leaping into the unknown getting on board with Molumphy but has been massively impressed by what he has seen from the former Waterford player thus far.

"After 10 minutes of a phone call, I knew I wanted to be involved, but it was a family decision after that,” added O'Brien. “It's a big commitment and I have three young kids at home and it has to suit logistically. Luckily, that side of things has worked out.

"We're back a couple of weeks with Kerry. It's been a hard block of training because we don't have the luxury of not going into the Munster Hurling League prepared. (Kerry lost to Waterford by 11 points in their opening game in the competition on Tuesday).

"If we aren't, we will take a trimming or two and that's the reality. You have to be at least fit and conditioned. You need to know the players that you want - I'd say that we are going to have more than a dozen debutants in the next couple of weeks, the average age of which will be 23.

"We also have the National League, which is very big for us, and Carlow in the first round in the first week of February. The difference between us and the rest is that we have to hit the ground running.

"The commitment is unbelievable. It will equal or match any tier one panel. It's just the calibre of players and the pool of players is different in other counties."

There has been a huge amount of talk in the off-season about the merits of the likes of the Munster Hurling League and it's counterpart in Leinster and whether they should be in place given the demands on players.

The club season is just over in Limerick and many of the players just finished those campaigns have been playing ‘Freshers’ hurling or preparing for Fitzgibbon Cup, while juggling inter-county and club commitments, but O'Brien sees it is vital for Kerry's hurling future.

"It (Munster Hurling League) is going to benefit us more than other counties as we are getting the exposure of playing tier one teams. It will be hard lessons for our lads to learn quickly, but that's the environment we need to expose them to.

"The other counties also need to see players. Limerick may not have their full emphasis on the League, other teams do. For us, it's huge.

"People will laugh as the first week in January, it was never my focus but it's something to look forward to."

O'Brien has had involvement with the Limerick U20 hurlers in the past but says that coaching isn't necessarily going to be part of his long term future.

"Is this something that I want to be doing in five, 10, 15 years? I'm not so sure. It's all about the group that you're with to be honest.

"I give back to Kilmallock as much as I can. The club is massively important to me. At underage, we need as much help as we possibly can. At the moment, I'm taking it year by year and we will see after that."

O'Brien will always have Limerick just as close to his heart as Kilmallock and says that he was as surprised as anyone else by the success that the county has seen in recent years.

"There are people out there that will say that with the players coming through that success was inevitable. There is expecting that and then another level when you see a team going for five All-Ireland's in-a-row.

"It's mindboggling really. Coming to the end of my career, the Cian's (Lynch), Barry's (Nash) and Diarmaid's (Byrnes) were coming in and you could see very quickly that they were special.

"Limerick have had talented hurlers for a long time but that doesn't mean you are going to win. Championship games are hard to win. They were 10 years ago for Limerick. That's where we were.

"I hope people never lose sight of that. We were inside in the Munster final this year and that was some buzz. The occasion was unbelievable. I just hope that Limerick people realise that this won't last forever and it's important to enjoy every bit of it."