Stephen O'Brien (Kerry footballer)


Stephen O'Brien is an Irish sportsperson. He plays Gaelic football with his local club Kenmare Shamrocks and although being a staunch supporter of Mayo GAA, he has been a member of the Kerry senior inter-county team since 2014. Stephen hopes to one day leverage this position for a spot on the Mayo bench.
He is the son of Noel, who died at home in 2014 from an illness. Mary, O'Brien's mother, runs a bed and breakfast in Kenmare. He used play as a back in his younger days.

Underage and junior

O'Brien never played with the Kerry minor team. He joined the counties Under 21 team in 2011. Kerry suffered a 22-point loss to Cork in the Munster final. He was still underage in 2012 and for the second year in a row he was on the losing side in a Munster final to Cork after extra time. In 2012 he also lined out for the Kerry Junior team in a Munster semi-final win over Cork.

Senior

He made his debut for Kerry in the 2014 Munster Senior Football Championship semi-final against Clare and scored two points.He lined out in a first Munster Senior Football Championship when they faced Cork, he scored a point in a 0-24 to 0-12 win and a first Munster title. He missed out on Kerry's win over Galway in the All-Ireland quarter-final. He was back in the starting line up for the semi final with Mayo scoring a point in a 1-16 each draw. An injury while out racing on his quad caused him to miss the 2014 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-final replay win over Mayo. However, he started the 2014 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final at right half forward. He was brought off at half-time as Kerry won out 2-09 to 0-12.
Retirements brought new opportunities for O'Brien in 2019. He scored Kerry's first goal against Dublin in five games during a 2019 National Football League fixture in Tralee. In the 56th minute of the 2019 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-final against Tyrone, O'Brien scored his fifth championship goal after intercepting a pass from Kieran McGeary, distributing the ball and running the length of the field.

Honours

;Kerry
;Kenmare Shamrocks
;Kenmare District Team