Longford ace Brian Kavanagh is only too willing to line out in the O'Byrne Cup in the depths of winter.

Kavanagh featured on the side beaten by Westmeath at Ballymahon on Sunday and he has no issue with the demands placed on intercounty players at this time of year:

" I suppose it all depends on the attitude you take towards a game like that," he notes in The Irish Independent.

"Some people can take a pessimistic view: it's the second week of January, it's five degrees, soft pitch, it's the O'Byrne Cup.

"You can take that attitude but the way I look at it, it's a match that I can use for building fitness and getting ready for the national league, so that's how I approached it.

"I suppose it might be going to the old cliché, but you take pride in representing your county, and representing your people, and your family and your friends.

"My family were at the match to support me and when you accumulate all those reasons, it makes you want to tog out and do well.

"The joy that we experienced last year in Celtic Park when we went up to Derry and beat them on a very warm day, I'll never forget that day. I'll never forget the joy of the Longford supporters who ran on to the field after the game.

"There are different years like when you go up to your neighbours Cavan and beat them in their own back garden in a qualifier game, or win the first round of a Leinster championship against Offaly in Pearse Park.

"These are all memories, and these are days that make you train and that get you through these O'Byrne Cup days and days like that, because you're always aspiring, you're always optimistic that there are brighter days around the corner."

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