Brianna O’Regan knows it’s good to talk after dealing with tragedy to put Déise dreams in focus

Whether it’s asking them what time is left, offering her defenders constant and vociferous encouragement, or issuing instructions to herself, it doesn’t stop.

“I think I’ve a bit of a mad streak in me,” says a chuckling O’Regan, happy to play to the stereotype of goalkeepers being a little different to the rest of the pack.

“It’s you and the two posts at times. I’d be talking to myself and probably the umpires are saying, ‘This wan’s a mad wan,’ but you have to have a different mindset to the outfield players . . . Poor (full-back) Iona Heffernan, I’d say her head is fried!”

Extroverted by nature, it would be a mistake to think the 23-year-old saunters through life with a devil-may-care attitude however.

She is deadly serious about her work as a special needs assistant at St Stephen’s De La Salle – “I love it” – and about honing her craft as a netminder. She has been as consistent as any in the land over the past three years, with her accurate puck-outs a key weapon in the Waterford armoury. The spectacular shot-stopping places her on an elite level, especially her penchant for saving penalties.

But life is for living and she is all about doing that. Just like her camogie and profession, reaching this point in her personal life has taken plenty of work, including counselling.

O’Regan admitted on ‘WLRFM’ after Waterford’s Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior championship win over Tipperary that the following day would be “very hard for me”, as it marked the anniversary of the tragic death of her parents Bryan and Johanna, and 21-month-old sister Niamh in a house fire at their Ballybeg home in 2006. Brianna and her brothers Cian and Aaron were lucky to escape. She was seven years old.

The support network – in terms of family, community and the GAA family – was critical but so too was professional help. She emphasises the importance of talking, to anyone, rather than bottling up anxiety or fear.

The De La Salle custodian said in an interview with this writer a couple of years ago that camogie, and greyhounds saved her life because they gave her an outlet. But talking about what happened and how she felt about it was the foundation stone of her growth.

“The younger generation now, they don’t want to talk, they find it embarrassing but I really don’t think it is. If you need help, even if you’ve a friend to talk to, you have to. Otherwise you’re going to be down in the dumps and you’re going to be taking your anger out on people that you don’t mean to.”

Her father Bryan’s parents, Patrick and Joan, are hale and hearty.

“They’re flying. No fear of them. granddad was 80 in May. It was so eerie (during Covid) because granddad would have such an outlet with the greyhounds and he wouldn’t have been able to go anywhere. They got Covid after Christmas – I didn’t get it, I don’t know how I didn’t but they were grand.

Meanwhile, she likes to think her parents and baby sister are looking after her: “They’re always with me, especially on match days, especially my dad because he was a hurler. If you say a word or two to them and it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, they’re there.’ It’s great to feel that.”

Today, O’Regan and Waterford are participating in their fifth consecutive senior quarter-final, playing Limerick as part of a mouth-watering, televised double-header in Thurles and she has high hopes: “We were in transition for a couple of years and still got to a quarter-final, but there’s senior players that have been there for a lot of it, so I suppose it would be nice to push on.”