Paudie O’Brien says club success helped him recover from Limerick’s defeat by Kilkenny

The best way to get over a loss at inter-county level is to get back playing with your club

Paudie O’Brien is looking forward to a tilt at Portaferry in the All-Ireland club series next month but admits that only for lifting a county and then Munster title in 2014 the year would have been a massive disappointment.

TJ Ryan’s Limerick side were involved in a thrilling All-Ireland semi final with Kilkenny in August that just saw the Cats edge their rivals in an incredible spectacle at Croke Park.

Speaking in Croke Park today where he was named among the AIB -GAA’s Toughest players to feature in the club championship, the 25-year-old admitted getting back into local action was a great way to overcome the heartache of another devastating inter-county loss.

‘We had our chance and it didn’t work out for us. We’re lucky enough that when you lose a big game like that and you’re very disappointed when you go on and win something with the club it makes it much easier. A lot of time and a lot of commitment and you need to be winning something every year to make it worthwhile. It definitely makes it a lot easier.’ 

O’Brien is also in favour of the changes to the GAA calendar that would see the season end in mid-December and put an end to the traditional All-Ireland club finals in March.

The defender feels that the change may upset some but there is room for a larger debate on the whole inter-county calendar.

‘There’s an argument you’ll be going against tradition more than bringing something in. There is a lot of scope for the whole calendar and not just scrapping St Patrick’s Day. Look at the January competitions in football and hurling and you’d have to argue is there a place for them. Look at the weather the last week and you have to wonder what managers are getting out of it and what players are getting out of it too.’

The GAA sub-committee reports published over the weekend also suggested that the All-Ireland hurling final may be now played in August. The Kilmallock man doesn’t think the change of a week will make a massive impact on club or county players.

‘There was talk of bringing an All-Ireland final back to August. I don’t now I that’s going to make whole pile of difference. I think it’s now in these couple of months that they really need to look at.’

Kilmallock face Portaferry in the AIB-GAA All-Ireland club hurling semi final on February 7th at 2pm in Thurles.

A full list of today’s The Toughest winners can be found here.

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