BRIAN O’Driscoll is the go-to man for two-pointers. So far this season he has hit eight for Cork, including two in their opening Munster championship win over Limerick.
The Caheragh native has racked up 0-25 across league and championship in 2025 – that’s a better tally than his last two years combined with the Rebels (1-18).
With this being the first year of the new rules in Gaelic football, O’Driscoll has staked his claim as one of the top players in John Cleary’s side. On these pages last week our columnist John Hayes said as much: ‘He has carried his fine form from the league, and to be fair, from last year, into championship 2025. In my book, he is vying with Colm O’Callaghan in midfield for Cork’s most important player right now.’
O’Driscoll hasn’t just been excelling for his county. Carrigaline has been feeling the benefits since he joined in 2024.
In his first season with the Carrigdhoun club they won the county league Division 1 and the county senior A football championship titles; he scored 0-13 in their championship triumph.
Carrigaline boss Michael Meaney has no doubts that not only has O’Driscoll improved but he has improved the club's standards, and there is more to come.
‘His first game would have been the Division 1 league final last year against Nemo (Carrigaline won 0-10 to 0-8) and we got a glimpse of what he was going to bring. As Brian got used to us, from the club’s point of view he brought a fair level of experience and a fair level of commitment,’ Meaney told The Southern Star.
‘He showed that in training, the whole lot, on and off the field. It doesn’t surprise me that he has brought that level after winning a county title with Carrigaline in his first year. He brought that form into the Cork set-up. I think he has been playing well all along with Cork anyway but he has just gone up another level in the last few weeks.
‘He has brought the standards up and how he looks after himself. He has brought the boys from our club up to that level now. They have all bought into that.’
Brian O’Driscoll is an important player for Cork.
O’Driscoll is Cork’s third highest scorer this year, only behind Mark Cronin and Chris Óg Jones. He was Cork’s joint top scorer in their championship opener against Limerick. What makes him even more valuable though is his versatility. He has played predominantly at wing-back this year but can also play midfield and wing-forward. All those three positions are around the middle of the pitch, where the game is won and lost.
‘Brian certainly is one of the main players. I would say he is one of the driving forces behind the team. You have to look at the level he is setting, and he is setting a standard for the rest of them. Looking at it from a county point of view he is certainly setting the standards. If everyone can follow that we will be going far,’ Meaney added.
Many people might not have seen O’Driscoll as the main long-range kicker for the Rebels when the new rules were introduced. However, himself and Mark Cronin have been the key men in kicking boomers. Again, Meaney isn’t surprised at O’Driscoll’s adaptation to the new rules – the Carrigaline boss has seen his shooting first hand.
‘Funnily enough, I’ve seen Brian kicking 45s for us. He kicked the frees last year for us in the county championship. He has a great boot on him. He is the type of fella that goes after training, before training and outside of training practicing every day. That is no surprise to me to be honest,’ Meaney explained.
So, can O’Driscoll continue his promising form against Kerry in the Munster SFC semi-final on Saturday? The Kingdom were recently crowned league champions and in their last three games particularly, have shown what they are capable of.
‘Over the last couple of weeks Brian has set the standard with the two-pointers. I can’t see any reason why they can’t go in and try the same tactic,’ Meaney said.
‘Look, it is going to be a totally different game obviously from what they’ve been playing. Kerry are Kerry. John Cleary and his management will have a plan for Brian and look at that going forward. I presume they’ll get him on the same set-up and get him on the ball as much as they can and see if he can get the two-pointers on the board.’
