GAELIC GAMES NEWS: Darran O'Sullivan has signed up to play rugby with Tralee, and he doesn't blame his young team-mates for trying another sport, writes Ian O'Riordan
POST ALL-IRELAND fervour in Kerry, and while there’s talk a couple of their finest young talents might be spending the winter playing around with an oval ball, as in Australian Rules, team captain Darran O’Sullivan is talking about playing around with an oval ball of another sort, as in club rugby.
He says – or at least he thinks – he’ll be trying out with Tralee Rugby Club over the winter. It’s just he’s not quite sure yet if he’ll have the time. But having played a lot of soccer as a youngster growing up in London (he spent two years with the youth academy at Queens Park Rangers) O’Sullivan is no stranger to foreign games, and reckons it would be a bit of fun, if nothing else.
“I think I’m after signing for Tralee Rugby Club for the winter,” he says. “Whether I play a game is another thing. I got approached a couple of years ago by Donal Lenihan and Gareth Fitzgerald to go out and give it a crack. That’s one of my regrets, that I didn’t play more. It’s a great game.
“Our physical trainer with Kerry, Alan O’Sullivan . . . his brother John has a coffee shop in Killarney, and used to play professional rugby with Munster. I go in there every day for a cup of tea on my break, and John said ‘would you give it a crack over winter?’ I said I would and signed away, happy out. Whether I’ll have the time for it I don’t know, but I wouldn’t mind giving it a crack.”
O’Sullivan admits he’s not sure what league Tralee play in (“The Munster league, I suppose.”) but he does have some time on his hands after his club, Mid Kerry, were beaten last Sunday in the county quarter-final; and he’s a little more certain about where he’d like to play: “Out on the wing or fullback or something. I want to go somewhere out of the way.”
The question of whether Kerry’s two most promisingly talents – Tommy Walsh and David Moran – will be spending their winter with the Australian Rules club St Kilda, and perhaps on a more long-term basis, was something O’Sullivan was understandably cautious about predicting: “As far as I know they’re going off to a trial for a couple of weeks. Sure who could blame them for going to Australia free of charge? They’ll be professionals for a couple of weeks, and I can’t imagine anyone saying no to that. They’ll go down there and obviously it’s up to them after that. You can’t really expect young fellas of 21 or whatever that if they’re offered a crack at it . . .
“Obviously they can make up their own mind, but obviously I’d be hopeful they stay on. They’re great footballers and it would be great for Kerry if they stayed but you couldn’t blame a fella either if he was willing to give something a try in another country.”
The lure of Australia once had O’Sullivan contemplating the dream but he admits it was never going to be a reality: “Well I didn’t have the height for it. There was a trial in Limerick when I was 18 or so. I think it was with the Brisbane Lions. But the letter arrived to go up a week or so after. I was off the head because I wanted all the free gear.
“But it is hard to make it out there. I think with Tadhg Kennelly it was just attitude. When he came home he was a bit rusty with the ball in hand. But his attitude towards the game is something else. He trains like mad. He was training professionally for nine or 10 years and he’s used to that, so literally he’s been doing the same thing since he came back. He’s been working on his skills also but the big thing for me was his attitude, he was willing to make it happen. I’m sure that helped him.”
