Cork v Offaly U20: Darragh O'Sullivan and Rebel band of brothers ready for final push

With the Leaving Certificate beginning with English paper 1 next Wednesday, Coláiste an Spioraid Naoimh student Darragh O’Sullivan is hoping to have something interesting in store for his personal essay.

Before he sits down to take his tests, the Ballinhassig native has the pressing matter of Sunday’s oneills.com All-Ireland U20HC final against Offaly at FBD Semple Stadium in Thurles (3pm).

Despite still only being in the second year of three at the grade, O’Sullivan has been entrusted with the vice-captaincy of the team by manager O’Connor.

Having been part of a star-studded side that romped to All-Ireland minor victory two years ago, O’Sullivan feels that experience on the pitch and the sideline has been a help.

“We’ve got a great management team with us,” he says. “We have Ger O’Regan, who was part of that 2021 [minor] management team and I suppose there’s a lot of this team who have stuck together.

We’ve been together since U14, winning All-Irelands the whole way up, and Ger has that expectation of all of us and he knows what to expect from us and the standards we can hit. 

"So, it’s hats off to Ger for this, because if we have a dull moment, we can go and talk to Ger about it.

“He’s a great role model to have around the team, and with Ben [O’Connor], [Ronan] Curran, [Anthony] Nash and Terence [McCarthy], they all offer their own attributes as well.

“I suppose everyone on this team, we’ve all been to Thurles anyway as it is, and the lads before; [Micheál] Mullins, [Eoin] Downey and [Ben] Cunningham were all on the U20 team that won against Galway in Thurles as well. We’ve all had the experience of an All-Ireland final.

“It’s just about putting in a performance on the day.”

CONFIDENCE

Another key member of the backroom team that O’Sullivan cites is team psychologist Dr Jennifer Hayes, who has given the players the tools to deal with challenging moments during the campaign.

“We’ve got a great psychologist, Jen,” he says.

“Since the start of the year, we had a meeting and we decided we were all going to buy into our pact, and one those things was that we were never going to die in any game.

“In that very first huddle, I remember Mullins, the one thing he said was, ‘We’re a family from here on out, one where we can call ourselves brothers.’

“Automatically, we had confidence in each other. We kind of knew that if there was one fella going off and the next fella coming in, we had confidence that he would do his job. It stuck to us throughout, it’s just a never-say-die attitude really is what we have.”

The familial aspect for O’Sullivan is underlined by the fact his brother Adam is also in the squad.

“It’s a great feeling to have Adam on the team alright,” he says, “but it’s all fun and games until he scores a few points when we are marking each other. It’s an awkward journey home!

“It’s great for the family, the club. When I mention the club at home, this place with this group of lads, this is a kind of a club atmosphere as well, just with how close we are because we have all bought into the same pact. We all know each other inside out.”

A midfielder at club level, O’Sullivan now finds himself classed as a corner-back with Cork but, should an opposition draw men back, he is usually tasked with moving forward. He credits Dónal Óg Cusack with switching him at minor level in 2020.

“He allowed me to express myself,” he says, “so, when I was allowed to express myself, I tried to take my midfield days into my corner-back role.

“Some days it worked and I managed to get on the scoresheet. It worked out for the best I guess, with the [All-Ireland] the following year.

“It’s just about having trust in the other lads around you. Like I said, we have confidence in each other and we’re all going to die for each other on the ball, if I’m up on the other 20, I’ll be bursting a gut to get back to my own 20.”